Game Day - Wheelers (3) d Bumpers (2)

On Saturday night we played the final regular season game in the North Vikings Inline Hockey Club's Division II competition.  We fielded five skaters (Rick, the three Pfeiffers and me) and had Jordyn in goals.  We had a random dude play 'coach' which was really helpful to add a bit of perspective and manage the bench.  The Bumpers had their regular coach, six regular skaters and Matt the Goalie in goals (Div I goalie who played with us last season).  Our having one less skater was partly made up for by the fact that their sixth skater, Craig, was coming back short off an injury and couldn't go full throttle.

The Bumpers were already locked into last place on the ladder. We on the other hand could snavel second spot, and thus the second chance in the playoffs, if we won in regulation time and the Rockers had a regulation loss in the game following (against the top ranked Shufflers).  This despite despite their having won more games than us.  This due our having one more point (due our having tied three games to their none).  So, we had something to play for.  The Bumpers were playing for pride.

The game was pretty exciting.  We scored two goals in the first, which was our lead at half time.  For the first, I held the pass in centre while Natasha maneuvered into free space off to the side of their goal.  The goalie covered me, so exposed his goal for her shot off my pass.  It was a very sweet goal.  Our second goal was scored by Rick, carrying the puck up the flank before cutting a bit towards the middle and putting in yet another of his hard snaps from mid range.  The previous three similar bombs he'd let go had been deflected by Matt the Goalie.  This one wasn't.  We went into half time with a 2-0 lead.

The second half got off to a dramatic beginning, with the result that after five minutes the game was tied 2-2.  This came about through an unfortunate set of circumstances, but that's hockey!  It went something like this:  Matt the Bumper skated a puck in from the boards and tried to shove it through the interposed stick of Brenton's as Jordyn realigned herself from having deflected the previous shot a moment before.  Brenton was holding him out until the whistle went, when it sounds like Matt shoved it over against the decreased resistance from Brenton's stick (I couldn't see the fine detail of the action as I was on the bench and various bodies shielded my view).  The puck was adjudged to have crossed the line before or as the whistle had blown and the goal counted.  Then, Brenton vociferously disputed the call, picking up a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike behaviour for his pains.  On the subsequent powerplay, Craig slapped one in as he steamed down the centre, narrowly missed me and Jordyn (who was partially unsighted due my position between her and the puck).  Two all, and fifteen minutes to go.

There followed ten minutes of fairly even play, almost lulling us in its nature as we grew steadily more exhausted (so were they, but with an extra skater they could probably be certain of coming home stronger).  Then, all of a sudden, there was the sound of raised voices.  A sight to brighten my night, Merrilyn and Donna having a verbal go at each other in front of the scorer's box.  Neither was very happy, even less so when they each got two minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour.  We stayed three on three (me and Rick went out to join with Tasha).  Two and a half minutes later I was again out there, chasing the puck to the back boards and looking for someone in the slot and instead wheeling it into the goalie's pad up against the goal post and shoving it hard as I went by at speed, to see the goalie curse as he looked behind him after the whistle for a puck that must have just snuck over the line.

This was the game winning goal.  It happened on a play where earlier Craig had crashed over Tasha in the corner resulting in a delayed call on the interference penalty.  I was off the rink for the resulting power play, during which no goal was scored before full time.  We'd won 3-2.

The most noticeable feature of our game was our deliberate passing, often under pressure, and perhaps more significantly the increasing habit of the receiver making the pass available by trying to set up the passing lane.  It certainly wasn't as conscious as this in the game, but is beginning to emerge as a feature of our game.  Still a lot of dump and chase, so things haven't yet changed all that much.

It was a bit strange to see three unsportsmanlike behaviour penalties handed out in the one short stretch of time.  Also, I'm not aware of previously having seen a delayed penalty, though perhaps that's because I don't tend to question the 'why' of the umpires and therefore haven't paid heed to the delay, which couldn't happen on this occasion because the play ended in a goal before the commencement of the penalty.  They outshot us 12-9 in the first and 10-9 in the second.  Jordyn shone in our goals, making some great glove saves in particular.  Probably my player of the match.

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I was pretty pleased with my game.  I scored two points for the second week in a row.  I was particularly happy with my assist on Tasha's goal though it was also very satisfying to finally get a goal in what was akin to a wrap around attempt!  

I took three shots on my protective 'box', I don't think I'll ever play without one again (have done this once, no harm but extremely foolish in retrospect).  In one play I skated the puck up the rink, around behind their goal after collecting the rebound, out across the top of the slot and then got a pass in to a team mate on the goal (which Matt saved).  Feet were also an active feature in this game, both on the boards and in the centre of the rink.  I used mine once very deliberately on the face off, a couple times on the boards, and at least a couple times in the centre of the neutral zone.

I did a fair bit of stick checking, quite a few times delaying or plundering a marauding Bumper with harassment by stick on stick work.  With my blade I managed to.deflect at least three pucks off of goal and another one in (which Jordyn caught).  I wore one swing to my face cage, hard enough to shake me but not enough to knock me down.  Incidental to the play and no malice, no penalty either.

It all came together quite actively during a board battle with Amanda, where I perhaps could have legally driven her either down or out but instead I aimed more at skill and reaching stick and blocking boot, with hand on her shoulder initially to keep tighter tabs on her and subsequently almost to ensure she didn't fall as she fought for the puck.  On another occasion I helped dig out the puck from a board battle in which Merrilyn did the hard work. 

My skating felt adequate to the task.  Needless to say, very pleasing when I heard someone say I looked 'so graceful' as I recovered after a long and desperate defensive shift,  gasping for oxygen!  Generally good positioning, cutting off their passes across the slot on a number of occasions, driving them towards the outside, covering their player in the crease or the goal post.  Didn't need to push and shove in our goal crease against this team.

I was outskated in close by Mel who perhaps displays some of her roller derby background through her tight co-ordinated turns.  More of a worry, though, was that I felt truly knackered midway through the second half.  I think much of this was due to my relatively poor eating over the last couple of days, but not all.  I wasn't the only one on our team that was running out of legs by the end of the game.  It will be good to 'wind down' on hockey intensity through the finals, and then into some fitness and conditioning work in a serious way! 

Hopefully we'll have six skaters next week for the first Preliminary Final against the Shufflers.  If we can play as tight defensively on their star forwards as we did tonight, and have the added oxygen that a sixth skater will give us, we'll be in with an outside chance.

Worth fighting for, anyways...

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