Game Day - Wheelers (4) d Shufflers (3) in Shootout

Last night was Preliminary Finals Night in the Div II competition at the North Vikings Inline Hockey Club.  We played the first game against the Shufflers, who had dominated the regulation season with only one loss and one tie to their ten wins.  The winner of the game would go straight through to the Grand Final in a fortnight's time, the loser would play next week against the winner of the Elimination Final between Rockers and Bumpers.  The Shufflers had beaten us in our last three meetings with a combined goal differential of 19-5.  They were the obvious favorites.

We, however, went in quite optimistically.  We'd played a ripper game last week against the Bumpers and knew how good we can be.  The Shufflers had beaten us three times in a row, true, but on the first we'd had a short roster, in the second we played our worst ever game as a team, and in the third we'd only had two regulars and three U14 reserves.  So they didn't know us at our best.  We knew that, if we played at our best, we would give them a run for their money.

We had all six of our skaters and an increasingly comfortable Jye in the goals.  Rick was starting to find his scoring mojo (despite a cracked rib), Krystal and Natasha had both proven their reliability, Merrilyn and Brenton were in an upbeat mood, and I had done the numbers to prove that things weren't quite as bad as they seemed (and was coming off a good end to my ice hockey season).  The Shufflers started with their full regular line up.  I don't know what they were expecting from the game, but we thought it was going to be a cracker.  And it was!

I was on the opening line with Brenton and Merrilyn. we won the face off and both teams mounted one strong attack in that first shift.  We changed lines at the whistle.  Rick scored not long afterwards on his first unassisted rush up the wing, deking and protecting the puck as he progressed into range for a strong shot (he has a quick release shot that is somewhere between a slapshot and a pass).  We were up 1-0.  They responded a minute later with a beautiful goal by Nikoletta (my smiling Shuffler nemesis), turning around me to come in low from the board and snap a strong rising shot into the top far corner off a pass of one of their gun skaters.  One all.  Game on.

Rick repeated his scoring feat on the next shift, maneuvering around all three of their skaters on his approach run before charging the net and slamming it in low.  2-1.  There then followed ten minutes of unrelenting hockey, with desperate plays and individual feats on both sides.  We were skating with a bench of five for much of this time as Rick had to get his skates retied and that took awhile.  Finally, at about the 15 minute mark, they finally scored again on a snapshot from close in.  Jye had it covered with his lower chest plate, only to have the puck 'tumble' up and over his shoulder and fall onto the ice the wrong side of the goal line a foot behind him.  That left the scoreline at 2-2, which is what it remained until the half time siren five minutes later.

During the intermission the mood on our bench was interesting.  Most of us were regaining our breath and composure, getting fluids in.  Brenton was examining one of his boots with a concerned look, announced that he would probably still be good in defence but that his boot was pulling loose from the chasis (I actually thought he'd cracked his chasis, which would have been worse).  Jye brought out the interesting observation that, when the Shufflers changed lines there was a period of about thirty seconds when their two gun skaters were out at the same time, and they were trying to time it so that the one who came out of the gate could enter a rush or otherwise get behind us unobserved from the bench.

Unusually for us there was very little chatter along the lines of 'we're doing good at [x]', or 'we need to do more [y]'.  I think it was because we were all saving our breath, and like to think that it was also because we knew what we had to do (afterall, we play a very 'fluid' game, mixing lines and roles with no outward plan, rhyme or reason - perhaps due not having a coach).  Then, Jye (I think) came up with the directive of 'sticking' on a player and going 'man to man' as what we 'needed to do'.  I think we agreed to do it, and then the second half was upon us.

Again, I was on the opening line, this time with Krystal and Tasha.  We'd changed after a short shift when again Rick scored an unassisted goal, this time from close in.  I didn't see the play as I was still grabbing a drink but gather it was one of those 'fluky' goals that you love/hate when they happen.  Either way, it was nice to have the puck god smiling on us for a change, and it's not everyday a Wheeler scores a hat trick (first time this season).

Ten minutes of increasingly desperate play ensued. For much of it we seemed 'disjointed', although playing well as individuals and displaying good team skills we were not achieving anything, playing 'pointless' hockey.  It was subtle, but unusual enough to draw comment from Brenton on the bench at one point.  We seemed to relax and picked up our game after that.  Unusual.  Sadly, this didn't stop them eventually putting in a close in shot from a crisp pass to tie the game again at 3-3.  Which is how it remained for the remaining six minutes of regular time.  The game would go to a shootout!

I'd raised the possibility of a shootout with my teammates before the game, suggesting that our first three shooters be Rick, Merrilyn and Brenton (being our three strongest shots).  When the referee came to get the names of our first three, there being no other plan, these were the names we nominated.  Rick, being still badly out of breath, would go third.  I nominated Merrilyn first.  She looked surprised.  I explained it was due to her experience.  That seemed to keep her happy.  Everyone else agreed.

She took the shot.  It went through a few inches above the floor.  Beautiful.  Especially as it turned out to be the only shot from either side that wasn't either saved or deflected from goal post.  We didn't need to send out Natasha for her first ever shootout.  We'd won.  What a game!

Rick was the game changer, closely followed by Jye for saving 34 out of 37 shots.  We'd put 20 shots on their net.  Not bad for us, but an amazing differential considering the result.  There were no penalties awarded through the game, despite some hard but clean clashes, high but unintentional sticks, and some very close borderline play regarding tripping, hooking, goalie interference and so forth.  It was a hard fought clean game.

Their coach said later that it had been the best Div II game he's yet seen.  With the possible exception of our Grand Final shootout loss a year ago, I'd agree.

*

My game was good but not exceptional.  I was on the rink for their first two goals and none of ours.  For the first of their goals, I had been defending a little out and forward from our goal post when Nikoletta worked her way around me and snapped a backhand (?) in a rising shot from an impossible angle to beat Jye.  In retrospect, almost a mirror image goal as far as my positioning and play as the Sharks scored against us last Sunday.

For their second, I was cutting off the pass to centre from the rushing gun on the boards, perhaps forcing the gun to instead elect to a take a shot, which hit Jye and trickled over his shoulder to score.  As it did so I was almost in stick range, could possibly have swatted it away if had been willing to swing at my goalie.  I actually had time to think about this in 'live time', so my decision making process is getting quicker (if not quite there yet).

My game was (again) spent more in a defensive mode than outright attack.  And by 'defence' I don't mean just hanging back and catching my breath but containing the rush or their breakout, forechecking the backstop when they passed back from offence to reset, blocking, directing, retreiving pucks or cutting off options.  In other words, very active.  It got to 'overload' when on several occasions I'd pass it from our zone to a forward, who would then need support to make something of our opportunity but who's companion forward was too slow get there in time (due less skating skill, or wandering attention, or being out of energy, as the case may be), resulting in me skating end to end circuits.  I double shifted several times, so probably played closer to thirty than twenty minutes.  Loved it.

I took the butt end of a stick to my lower ribcage at some point in the first half.  It think it was their hulking forward, but don't know.  Although it grazed it didn't bruise or break so I'll forgive.  Had a couple clashes with Nikoletta, the funniest being in the goal front in the final period where Jye was down over the puck and she was teetering over him jamming at it and I was teetering behind her trying to hold us both up and get her out of there or the puck safe at the same time.  We both had a chuckle at that.  I also wore a strongly swung hit in the face cage, around that point in the game, from a highly apologetic Carol.  I knew it was an accident and these things happen, which I told her (pretty abruptly, in retrospect).  No pain.

Not that I was totally 'innocent' in terms of 'clean' play, having on several occasions used my strength to try and shove a lurking forward out of the slot, or block his attempts to get into a screening or deflecting position, or jam up a stick to tie up the offence as a puck came in.  Quite physical.

The most dramatic physical clash of the game, however, was a mid floor collision at moderate speed between Krystal and Nikoletta.  Neither had seen it coming, their helmet cages bounced off each other, and they both fell in a heap.  Both got up after the shock of the fall, neither seemed harmed, there was no bad blood.

I won most of my faceoffs (maybe four out of six), deflected perhaps four shots off goal with late moving stick or skates.  Won all my serious defensive races against their best skater, where my five stride overspeed drills from the day before came in useful, using my body or boots to prevent his desired actions if not actually seize control of the dumped puck.

My favourite play resulted in my physically forcing their star onto an outside track as he tried to muscle inwards from the boards on a fast rush (my low posture gave me the required traction against his superior mass and momentum), turning on him as he tried to loop around me in the end zone to use my hips to gently park him near the boards.  After this incident I noticed that he didn't try and take me on again, instead passing to a (less dangerous, from our point of view) player.  Mission success.

At the end of the game, smiles all round on our side.  And about half of theirs.  We get the week off before the Grand Final, when we'll meet the winner of the qualifying final between the Shufflers and the Rockers next week.

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