On Saturday we played the last game of the evening at the Gawler Rec Centre against the Shufflers. Our four 'old hands' were present, plus Mike in goals. The Shufflers fielded six skaters, including Mel and Jana from the Bumpers. We realised this would be somewhat of a challenge, resolved between ourselves before the game to rotate with short shifts. The fact we were only running out of legs in the last five minutes of the second half is some evidence that we managed what we had pretty well.
The first half was a fairly tight affair. Brenton copped a penalty for 'interference' in the first couple minutes. I didn't see the incident but gather he was nonplussed, as were at least one of his linemates. Because, from the following face off, Krystal single handedly charged into the forward zone and crashed a goal on her own. We held them out for the rest of their powerplay. Jana equalised with a goal three minutes later, only to have Krystal steal the lead back for us with seconds to go before half time.
Two and a half minutes into the second half and I scored what turned out to be the game winning goal from the joint assist of Merrilyn and Krystal. Krystal followed this up with two more single handed affairs and I scored our sixth goal with freakish style from behind the half way line. They scored a late consolation goal with a minute to go. We skated it out to be eventual winners 6-1.
I was moderately happy with my game. I think I won all of my face offs, generally tapping the puck behind and to my right, then protecting it with my body as I decided whether to skate or pass backwards. This is the second week in a row with this sort of record!
I had quite a few shots at goal. Two rang off the post, and a third was counted this way though I half think I saw it somehow go through and bounce out (of the top left corner) as I skated past at speed on my follow through. I don't recall much of my first goal, only that it came from a shot from a swiftly rolling puck in the low slot through traffic and the five hole. I was complimented for it later by a couple of the opposition.
For my second goal, I was actually congratulated on court by some of my opposition, it was such a freakish shot. I was lurking just on the defensive side of the half way line, about a third of the way in from the rightside boards. Merrilyn had control of the puck in the back right corner, under some pressure from Jana as the Shufflers pressed forward. Merrilyn saw me free, snapped out a pass that I saw coming as though in slow motion. As it drew near I thought, 'bugger it, have a go'. I was facing our end as I positioned myself so that the puck would pass me about three feet to my left. As it passed I performed a tight shooting turn, 'sling shotting' the puck off my stick as it passed me and redirecting it to hurtle towards their goal. It went straight through at shin height. The goalie didn't see it coming. It was the only long shot we had all night. I've only seen similar attempted maybe thrice in all my games and shinnies, and only seen it work once (on a NHL highlight reel from last year). I saluted Merrilyn as the whistle blew.
This game was marked by a fairly high level of ferocity in its puck battles, both on the boards and in front of the nets. It was not unusual to see sticks and boots still flailing after a player from either side hit the floor, sometimes more than one at once, with those who'd kept their feet wading in and adding to the chaos. It converted the goal fronts to dangerous places, at least twice for Mike and thrice that for their goalie. To their credit, both goalies kept their nerve and hunted the puck down amongst the swinging boots and sticks, sometimes as bodies fell upon them. It was tremendous fun!
At the end of the game it was heartfelt handshakes all round, and we disected the game between ourselves regardless of team.
Now we have a week off from competition, then I think it is continuous weekends into September.
GP 4 G 3 A 2 Pts 5 +2 2/2/0
Inline 33
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