My 50th game of inline hockey (including when I have been a reserve for other teams)!
On Saturday night I played in the Wheelers' game against the Bumpers. It was a top of table end of season clash. Top spot on the ladder was theoretically up for grabs (if we won by eight goals or more we would enter the finals series with home rink advantage, an almost but not quite impossibility).
Both teams began the game with four skaters. This occurred due a prior engagement for Natasha and back injuries through the week to Brenton and Craig (Bumpers). We had Nicole in goal, they had Andy. They had Greg acting as Bench Manager. We had Josh on the gate and performed our usual act of anarchic democracy in managing it.
Before the game we determined amongst ourselves to keep to short shifts. We did pretty well in this regard, essentially rotating ourselves in a disciplined turn-taking fashion. As the second half progressed I noticed that the more fatigued players were tending to the less active roles on the rink as they waited their turn for a breather, gaps between plays were utilised for aerobic recovery by mutual consent, the pace slowed down considerably, and the rotation order became a little more fluid to cater to individual capacity in the stretch. I was very pleased with this aspect of our game.
I scored the first goal, unassisted, in the eighth minute but I can't recall much about it. I do recall triumphantly punching the air and pointing my tick towards my team mate who had originally taken the shot that bounced high off the goalie to land back in the crease, where my stick met it on point of landing to poke it over the line just ahead of the open net closing. Sweet garbage goal!
Two minutes later, Jana scored, and then two minutes after that, Mel did. The Bumpers had two tripping penalties called against them in the closing two minutes. I drew the second of these. Unusually, it was against their goalie, I having 'teased' him with the puck as I moved across the goal front, tempting the pokecheck attempt that contacted my wheels and sent me to the floor.
The last play of the half was amusing. I came off the bench with only about 20s to play, took the faceoff and charged the net. I think both Josh and I hammered in shots from reasonable positions for rebounds, and a third shot was let loose as the siren sounded. The referee saw the blitz that we were trying to create for what it was and joined me in a wry smile as the half ended.
The second half was a more dour affair, four on four hockey is pretty exhausting! Luckily, Merrilyn combined with Josh to shoot an equaliser with five minutes to go. No one scored after that and the game ended in a 2-2 tie, the only tied game in our division all season!
I often didn't make time for passing lanes to open up, resulting in Jana (in particular) blocking, deflecting or intercepting many of my attempts to create a play with a team mate in good position (often in the central slot zone). This was the main way I surrendered possession. I found out later that they were trying to put her on the rink when I was on, presumably to use her good defensive play to counter what they perceived as my threat. This made for an interesting game, but I will need to work out a counter-strategy by next week.
There was a fair bit of puck protection going on, with attacking forwards keeping the puck on the outside of the more central defender, pushing and shoving against use of the hips to force separation in close, screens and scrums and wide deking to those who could do so (Josh). I fended off all of their players at different times, I think at some point I both knocked down, and was knocked down by, each of them. Against a player coming in close with good agility, such as Mel, I could easily find myself having to hip check, stick check, poke check, kick and otherwise use body position to fend of a rapid weaving attack.
Both teams used the rearwards pass to good effect. These were rarely intercepted though I grabbed at least a couple long backpasses to create a rush. We will have to keep in mind that if Craig is playing for them next week he will often be lurking in the neutral zone, waiting to collect a back pass and take a shot. He has grown fitter through the season, content to sit back as their 'defence' and snipe and able to do this for large portions of the game if not forced out of this comfortable groove.
Crystal took a lot of our faceoffs. She won the majority of those she took. I think that she is a good second centre behind Brenton in this respect.
I was on for one of ours and none of their goals. I think I had at least ten shots. Will need to learn to raise the puck rather than just hope for the rebound.
GP 12 G 11 A 14 Pts 25 +20 8/3/1
Inline 49
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