On Saturday evening the Wheelers played the Shufflers in the early Div II game in the Vikings inline hockey competition at Gawler. It was the seventh game of the season. All our skaters were available and we had Andy in goal again. The Shufflers had five skaters and their regular goalie.
I promised myself that I wouldn't play to the point of being spent. This due the fact that I had been suffering a head cold all week (had not gone to training as a result). It hadn't progressed down into my body, which was the only reason I adjudged myself fit to play at all. This inconvenience was dwarfed by the fact that Merrilyn's mother had died the day before. We all wore black armbands to mark the occasion. I suspect that the game offered a little relief from the period of grieving for her and her family. I hope so, anyway. My thoughts remain with them, and her in particular.
Despite the scoreline, or perhaps because of it(?), there isn't a great deal to now say about the game - famous last words for a blogger...
I played on the opening line with Crystal and Luke. We played a good two minute shift before rotating off. The Pfeiffer line then went out and played a good defensive shift before our return. At the 14:30 point, Crystal slotted the first goal of the game off a neat pass by her brother. We immediately changed up. Three minutes later, the Shufflers scored one of their rare goals this season against the Pfeiffer line. Game was tied, and the play matched the scoreline.
We changed up and I took the faceoff. The Shufflers had had a morale boost with their goal, a couple of my team were thinking that this game wasn't as easy as they'd thought it would be. It is such delicate moments that can see games and seasons swing, so I approached the faceoff with a predetermined result in mind (which is rare for me) and followed through to create it (which is rarer still). Tap out to the right, grab possession, force the puck past the extended stick of their centre, deke left then right around the next shuffler, tie up sticks with puck between on their last skater, kick the puck free and swoop in on the goal before slamming it home unassisted. Probably my strongest skilled goal and turned out to be the game winner.
From there it was a bit of a parade. Crystal scored three more goals in the first half, with assists from myself, myself and Josh, and then from Merrilyn when we mixed our lines up a bit. We went into half time 5-1 up, having allowed only four shots to our sixteen.
Second half was much the same. Brenton scored off a pass by Merrilyn into the slot, Josh and I each scored unassisted (him off his own rebound, me from a breakaway up the boards when I took my opportunity upon noticing the open '5 hole' (between the goalie's legs) with no stick, through which I promptly fired my shot a few inches off the surface), and a final goal by Brenton off a nice backhand backhand pass from me when he was open in the slot and the goalie had been drawn to my side of the rink. Final scoreline, 9-1.
To the Shufflers' credit, they never stopped resisting us. In the final couple minutes, for example, there was a passage in their high slot where all six skaters were within a fairly narrow radius and the puck rocketed back and forth between bodies, sticks and skates maybe five or six times before it indecisively rolled free.
Other moments of note occurred in their goal crease, including a hard shot from me on a break out like that which had resulted in my second goal, except that this time the puck slammed into the bottom of the goalie's helmet and she remained stationary for a few seconds before gathering it in. I thought I might have harmed her, but she later told me that she was just checking that all her bits worked before moving them. The other really weird thing was when one of us slammed it in towards the goal corner hard from close in with a crush in front of net. I was low on the other side of the net, heard it hit the post nearest me, heard it hit another piece of pipe before slowly rolling out on the far side of the goalie.
As always, a hard fought game. For the second week in a row, no penalties. We outshot them 34-10 on the shot clock. Again, we scored twice as many goals off of assists (or multiple assists) as we did unassisted. Five of us scored points (Me 5, Crystal 4, Josh 3, Merrilyn and Brenton 2 each). We were constantly trying the passing game, with shots when they presented themselves. Natasha was just unlucky not to have joined us in the points. Our shift discipline was perhaps the best it's yet been, rotating down to short shifts of a minute or so in the final few minutes. I think there was only once where we unintentionally mixed the lines up due lack of attention (as opposed to changing on the fly). We are developing into a team that plays hockey, not one that just funnels in shots.
My own game was pretty good. As you'd expect considering I walked away with five points 2-3-5. I was on for six of our goals, none of theirs, played pretty fierce defence, hunting them in the corners, clearing the crease, closing the gap at every opportunity. I think of the way some of them crowed last season when they comfortably wiped the floor with us (they had a couple new guys with them, who are playing Div I at the moment) and felt no guilt. That's hockey.
We remain second on the ladder, one game behind the Bumpers, two games clear of the Rockers. Next week we play the Rockers in the late game.
GP 7 G 7 A 9 Pts 16 +13 5/2/0
Inline 41
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