Our 'Young line' opened both halves, scored within the first half a minute of the game. The Rockers responded with two goals in the ensuing 12 minutes, giving them the lead and me a slightly sinking feeling. Brenton then scored to tie up the game, and Natasha hacked in another with a couple minutes to go. We led at half time 3-2, having outshot them 17-5.
In the second half, the Rockers equalised with their first of five shots for the period, resulting in the game being tied 3-3 until the 14 minute mark when Crystal put one in unassisted. Rather than go into defensive mode, we stepped it up, resulting in a one timer off my stick from an offensive faceoff win and another unassisted goal from Crystal with two minutes left. We totalled 23 more shots for the period against their 5, skating out clear winners 6-3.
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We ran two consistent lines through 90% of the game, only minorly mixing it up when a couple shifts needed to change on the fly (returning to standard lines shortly afterwards). Shift length was pretty evenly spread, with both lines taking short shifts on occasion.
Our only overly long shift was at the beginning of the second half, when the Young line was stuck on the rink for about five minutes (not the first time we've started the second shift like this) undoing the good work that we had done earlier when we gave the Old line a short one minute shift at the end of the first period so that the Young line could have a three minute break over half time to be relatively fresh for the beginning of the second half. We have improved a lot this year in how we do this but there is still more work to do.
In the Young Line, Natasha tended to be the 'third skater' back behind the centre line. I think she needs to trust herself a little more and play more forward, putting herself into the sights of Josh and Crystal as they create havoc deep in the offensive zone. To her credit, nothing dangerous got past her and she wasn't afraid to carry the puck in for a shot when opportunity presented. Josh and Crystal got into trouble occasionally by finding themselves too deep without an effective reset option, so if Natasha came more forward it would fulfill a number of needs.
Our Old line played slightly shorter minutes than the youngsters. We were a pretty fluid trio and didn't play fixed roles, rotating off the backline as opportunity presented. Playing with our third skater still above the redline, nothing dangerous got past us. We had enough energy left at game end to know that we could have gone longer and stronger had the need presented (in fact, all three of us played as reserves in the second Div II game later that evening).
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As seems to be the case these days, I was happy with my game. I had no issues with any of my various injuries, gave myself no new aches or pains. I didn't put myself into any major anaerobic breakdown, kept my feet moving as soon as I had aerobically recharged at the end of my shifts. I was back in control of myself and ready to go again generally after a minute.
The training is paying off in other ways also. For example, I had a couple physical matchoffs with Matt (ex Wheeler) and didn't lose any of them. He is significantly heavier and more bulky than me and is not afraid of using his strength so holding my ground while protecting the puck, instead of relying on my skating to get clear, was in itself a marked improvement (as it created options).
I was involved in our second goal, getting a point for my assist pass to Brenton who scored from the slot. I had gone on a rush down the boards but faced a congested centre when I entered the zone. I held up the puck briefly, advanced, held it held it held until a passing lane opened into the slot and Brenton had come in with stick primed for the pass and his second favourite type of shot (gather, stop, aim, wind up, shoot). Goal! Besides the pleasure of this type of hockey, it also shows the benefits of varying my speed to suit the situation and create opportunities. I'll have to pay more attention to the concept of slowing down in future.
I scored my own goal with a one timer from a faceoff victory pass by Merrilyn from the right offensive faceoff dot. I hit it sweet and it rocketed in above the Goalie's pad and beneath the glove. Like most of my other shots, it was a hard shot from middle distance. Unlike most, it went through above floor level. Some of the other shots were lovely aimed snaps, but moving on the rink surface slows the puck down, allowing the goalie further time to get pad or stick in the way. If I could only lift the puck at will ... must figure out a practical practice set up to allow me to master this.
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Next week we play the Bumpers in a top of table end of season clash. We can theoreticcally take top spot (if we win by 8 goals or more). This would be extremely unlikely but, if it were to happen, it would also not be inconceivable that I could score a career high six points more than Craig to take our Division's individual point scoring title from him (though his 25 goals easily ensures he will be the Division's leading goal scorer, unless Crystal scores 8 goals to take that title from him). As I said, extremely unlikely, but one of the reasons we play sport is to dream!
GP 11 G 10 A14 Pts 24 +19 8/3/0
Inline 47
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