Game Day - Flyers (2) d Knights (1)

I'll later edit this post to add in official stat related material when game sheet appears on pointstreak.

Last night we were beaten 2-1 by the Flyers in our third and final encounter of the season.  The score was 0-0 at first intermission and 0-1 at the end of the second.  We had eleven skaters and Tommy in goal.  Tom, Andy and Lachy were all there this week, Beau also was there again (he is slowly learning to play his wing position and has a nice turn of speed on him).  Henry wasn't there this week. 

I was moderately happy with my own game as there were some good aspects to it, but I let myself down on a couple occasions so I don't see it as a more than average evening.  I ended up choosing to wear my new Bauers afterall, and am glad I did as there was no foot soreness afterwards and only a little during the initial warm up phase.

I was on ice for all three goals, blocked two shots, deflected another around the net, put up reasonable to good battles on both blue lines, looked for my breakout passes and wasn't intercepted either chipping it up the boards or, on a couple occasions, making a long cross ice pass either to a team mate or to rebound across the blue, chased the puck down for a couple icings, harassed their net front forwards until they desisted or the puck was otherwise cleared, kept their breaking forwards to the outside, engaged in and won a serious battle along the boards and, on one occasion, pinched forward as far as the hash marks to send the puck back towards their net.  These were all good things.

The weaknesses in my game were simple matters, but both were disastrous.  The first was a lack of attention when on the bench resulting twice in an exiting player having to yell when almost in my face to get me to open the gate and get out on the ice, thus I twice lost a few seconds on the play.  On the first occasion my absence contributed to what became a three on one rush resulting in their first goal.  The second time was not so disastrous but was disturbing to my team mates.  On reflection I don't think I would have been able to make the play on the first occasion even if I'd been quicker, but it sure looked and felt bad.  I need to keep my head on a swivel at all times - including when on the bench!

My second major failing was momentarily lifting my stick for an unknown reason when not under immediate pressure, resulting in the puck going past me and me being out of position.  On at least two occasions this resulted in one of their forwards swooping on the puck, one of these became a 2 on 0 rush which Tommy luckily halted between the pipes.  All the times that I safely collected a loose puck count for nothing if I screw it up once and it results in a goal.   I need to keep my stick on the ice, especially when collecting a puck!

GP 12 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 -10 5/6/1

Ice 10