We went down on Sunday night to the fourth place Sharks. They starred Matthew Peterson in goals and he pulled off some amazing saves. In our net, Tommy similarly made some amazing saves but we left him open and exposed twice too often, and one of their players put in a howitzer shot from behind the blue line to make three. We were down on players, Tom and Andy in particular were missing, as well as Lachy. So, we were down to three D and two forward lines, although it was worse than that as Cam had got out of his sick bed to make up the numbers on defence, where we were really therefore about two and a half D (me with ten games in the position behind me, Mike with four times that). Foxy and Baden returned, and Beau turned up for his third (or fourth?) game, but we were done a player compared to them. The lack of defenders in particular was a bit harsh.
Despite all this it was a hard fought game and much closer than the scoreline indicated. The teams were separated by less than a game on the ladder before the game. The sharks now control their own fate in the final third of the season, and we probably need to win at least five of the remaining six games to give us a realistic shot at making the playoffs. If we play as well as we did against the Sharks, with at least two of the absent three players turning up to even up the numbers, and if Cam gets better, then we're not without a chance. But, they're a few ifs...
The game itself was tied at 0-0 at the first break, we having survived a too many men on the ice penalty. I was on for the penalty kill, and then had a short break before they also had a penalty and it was four on four for about a minute. That was fun!
They scored their first goal with five minutes left to go in the second. I can't recall now how it came about, but I was involved in the precedent play and made a bad choice that led to their opportunity. Very disappointing.
In the third period they scored once early and once late, the second being the previously mentioned howitzer shot and the third being a rushed goal. They also copped another penalty in the third but we didn't capitalise on the chance (I played little if any on the power play).
When the final siren sounded it was a much more friendly conclusion than our last game against them had been. Rarely for us we even went and thanked their coach for the good game when it was done.
As for my own game, despite being on the ice for all three of their goals (helping set the first up, but almost blocking their second (it missed me by bare inches)) I think it was my best game yet. I was reading the play pretty well, defended the offensive blue line quite well a few times, looked for my breakout passes, iced it only once, jammed their forwards out from the crease, covered the goal mouth once when Tommy was down and shielded him with my body once when he was on the ice and the puck was loose in front of him. I sent a couple of shots in towards their goal, one of which was just barely tipped out by the outstretched foot of their goalie. Most surprisingly, in spite of playing over thirty minutes I reckon I had another period left in me at the end!
There were a couple of successful pinches on my part, as well as collecting the puck from faceoffs. I knocked them off their stride a couple times, and did a couple really good poke checks. I was keeping the gap closer, only got skated around once. Going in a forward direction I matched their speed, and almost did so when going backwards. This game I kept my feet a lot better and the transitions were relatively smooth so I was pretty pleased with myself, despite the vanishing playoff chance and the loss.
GP 11 G 0 A 0 -9 5/5/1
Ice 8
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