Last night, we went down against the Rockers 5-3 in the Grand Final of the Div II Summer Competition at Gawler. We had a full roster whereas they, for the second week in a row, had only four. We had Jye in goals. Half our team had had an equipment upgrade since we last played a fortnight ago, Brendon had new skates while Rick and I both had new bearings (Rick had new wheels as well).
It was a good game, with our team under siege from the duo of Craig and Paul from about the second shift onwards. The shot clock was a massive 36-20 in their favour by the end of the game. What was nice (in a way) was that their first goal was actually scored by Pauline Frank from close to the net off of a cross crease pass by Craig after he and Paul had split our defence wide open. From the bench I could see it coming as they crossed the centre line. We equalised two minutes later with a strong unassisted play by Rick, punching up the left board before sweeping into the centre in the high slot and putting the puck in the top corner. It was apparently a goal he'd been thinking about all week. There followed several minutes of tight play before they scored again with a Craig/Paul combination on the rush to put them ahead 2-1 at half time.
The second half started tight, and only grew tighter when Natasha tied up the score after receiving a pass from Krystal in the low slot, swiping the puck beneath the goalie's legs. It was nearly ten minutes later before they responded with two goals in a minute, both coming off the stick of Paul and both from passes by Craig. It was looking grim with five minutes to go when I grabbed a pass around the centre line, raced up the wing before cutting in and splitting the defence in front of goals, flicking it in for a high corner off my backhand that caught all except myself by surprise. Lest hope arise, though, their deadly duo punched through a final goal to reinstate their two goal lead and skated out the final five minutes to emerge 5-3 victors.
My game was reasonable though not great. I won most of my faceoffs, including the openers of each half. Defensively I had them fairly well covered, although when I was on my own that meant taking the pass and leaving the shooter to Jye at times. I was on the rink for one of their goals and one of ours, didn't create enough offensive opportunities to do much more. I tipped a couple of their shots away from our goal, stickchecked to disrupt at least one otherwise open net shot of Craig's, forced Pauline away from the net as she carried it around behind to try and sweep it in on the open side, forced a rushing Craig wide onto the boards and then tied him up with stick and feet until I had to release my stick and block with my body position until help arrived. In other words, I fulfilled the defensive part of my mission adquately but did not convert the above plays into chances for us as they effectively maintained possession on each occasion.
Part of the reason for this was because I got warnings from the ref on all the above occasions along the lines of 'keep your stick down' or 'pick up your stick.' I don't think I was raising the stick above shoulder height at any of the relevant times, and didn't cross the line of legality, but I think this took me back inside myself and put a dampener on continued aggressive play - which had actually been my game plan for dealing with Paul and Craig. I didn't have an 'option B' worked out beforehand, so the offensive side of my defence suffered accordingly.
Not blaming the ref, I WAS close to the line of being penalised. Especially on the occasion when I used both hands on my stick to shield a rushing Paul around our goal post and was keeping contact on his side as he raced between net and board - I recall thinking I COULD have shoved him there as recompense for a deliberate cross check he'd done on Natasha earlier in the season (but chose not to, BEFORE the ref 'warned' me for my stick).
My other referee interaction was perhaps more direct, on four occasions chipping the puck to the board to get around an opponent and having it caught amongst the referee's feet instead. I think that on each occasion bar one I managed to retrieve it, but the momentum had been lost on each occasion. Sigh.
My passing was okay going forwards, but didn't direct our forwards sufficient. Some players require it if a coordinated offence is to form itself. I did attempt to 'reset' on several occasions by passing backwards to our D, it never ended happily as the pass often didn't find them due their not expecting it. Me and Merrilyn continued to combine well going forward however.
I was pretty pleased with my goal, involving a very similar move to what I did down at the schoolyard a few times the night before (when tossing around for how I would take a penalty if it came to a shootout), swooping across the goal front about ten feet out, delay the shot until I appear past it, then flick the backhand in. It was a nice feeling as I headed into the goal to be plotting my move and sliding into play with some degree of foresight. Nice to feel the puck solid on the stick as I carried it through the pack (benefit of short drills over the past fortnight). According to their goalie I put four shots onto net (though I only recall the one that went in). He reckoned my other main chance was one that he only just managed to deflect with the point of his shoulder.
As the game wound down I spent too much time on the bench, considering I had energy left and the Rocker's legs were fading. Perhaps more active bench management might have allowed us to put on more pressure but we didn't do it, continued with fairly even minutes to the final siren. I think other teams would have skated their top line into exhaustion in a similar situation. I can't feel too bad about this though, it is the Wheeler's way to
give opportunity to all as a priority over winning at all costs.
So, a good clean game without penalties or angst, no superstars, and we got the silver.
My thoughts on the season and necessary directions for the future will be in a future post. For now, I just want to bask in the fact that I have made it through a summer of hockey seasons - 32 games in just under six months. Well done me!
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