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Saturday 13 February 2016

Game Day - Bumpers (4) d Mavericks (3) SO

Regular season Inline hockey returned to Gawler on Saturday Night.  We lost our Division II game against the Bumpers in a clean close-fought game that ended up in a them taking the shootout victory with a solitary goal by the adult rookie, Dallas, in his first game with the team.  With him on board they had five skaters, the same as us.  They had Matt the Goalie, we had Josh.  Neither team had a bench manager.

The game was important to both teams in terms of position on the ladder.  The Division is very competitive this year, three teams with one point between them (we were in first position coming out of the summer break, on goal difference) and only four games before finals and any of the four teams can beat any other on a good day.  The points were important.

I was on the first shift.  It was controlled and fluid.  Their 'new' guy game out after I had changed out, scored a goal shortly afterwards.  He has quite a shot and this was effectively his way of announcing that fact.  From that moment on the game was one of continuous catch-up and them never surrendering their lead.  At least, that's the way I recall events (the official game sheet, however, tells another tale).

Our first shift was good, strong skating, recovery from defence, passing to advantage and shots on goal.  Shouldn't have been too self congratulatory as they scored their first goal on the next shift.  Dallas, the new guy who'd been on our team in the Viking Cup, scored it from just over half way.  He was skating strong and showed his good shot at that time, putting the rest of us who weren't already on notice that this was a good (ie. Div I) player.

Ten minutes later we equalised with a deft shot by myself from the mid slot, off of a pass from Merrilyn in the left corner.  Between her and me were all three Bumpers.  What was cool was that she deliberately held the puck despite being charged so as to have a good look and find her moment for a pass to myself.  When it came it was a brilliant saucer pass, landing right on my blade allowing for what was effectively a one timer snapshot.

The game was 1-1 as we went into half time.  This turned out to be an extra long break due to Josh having trouble with his goalie gear (in the end he swapped out of the ones he had on originally to some that allowed him some flexibility of movement).  Although it was nice to have a long break and come back in virtually a rested state for the second half, it was disturbing to think that the opposition was also getting this benefit.  I think this worked to our disadvantage as our basic fitness and conditioning was superior to the Bumpers and we would have therefore had a bit more of an edge in the final minutes if half time was shorter.  Be that as it may, such is life.

I was on for their second goal, scored in the third minute by another shot from close to the centre line.  This time it was by Mel.  I was close to the flight of the puck and could have made an attempt to block it away if I had chosen.  Instead, I decided to leave it to the goalie and it fluttered through.  Nice shot, but what interests me now is that I (1) had time to consider options even as the puck was in the air, and (2) I chose to take the 'passive' approach and step back out of the puck's path to allow Josh a clearer view of it.  In respect of (1), this is good as long as I don't intellectualise on the rink.  In respect of (2), perhaps with the benefit of hindsight I can now say that I should have tried to block it.  Recent defelcted goals seem to have shaken my confidence, if only to the extent that I now leave the long shots to the goalie to deal with.

I wasn't on the rink for our answering goal, a pass from Merrilyn to Matt in front of goal and he slamming it home.  2-2.  Nor was I on for their next score, ten minutes. later.  I wasn't even watching at the time but noticed that all their players were crowding our net.  I gather he jammed it home from close in, an unusual goal for Craig. 

They were in front 3-2 as the final minutes ticked away and the game grew desparate.  I was on the rink for the final minute, had tried to rush the goal off an offensive face off, failed, found ourselves pushed back in our own end, me in the back left corner looking to get the puck forward for a final attack, notice Merrilyn coming out of the gate and springing up the right boards, wait, pass it in a long cross rink stretch pass that went tape to tape and allowed her to swoop in and score.  Very neat pass.

3 all.  Overtime.  We ran with myself, Matt and Merrilyn and failed to score.  On their side, Dallas scored the opener and then Mel and Craig failed to follow up.  Their win and no points to us.

No penalties in the game despite the teams and the intensity, though I think we all came close at some time.

Besides the tight passing that led to our goals, I most recall the physical nature of the game, an almost goal when I got outfoxed by Matt the Goalie, and the fact that we kept hitting Matt's body and pads when we shot at goal (need to find the corners more often).

In terms of physicality, two incidents typify its level.  On the first, I and Dallas battle on the boards behind our goal.  He pins me, prevents me clearing it, tries to push it clockwise.  I try and dig it out from under him and start trying to kick the puck out from him despite the pin.  He ties this up by getting his foot under mine between kicks and levering it upwards.  So we are pinned to uselessness against the boards and no one else can get the puck from between three of our four skates.  So, and unusually, the ref blow his whistle to restart the game at a faceoff.  Excellent battle.

The second example of the physicality occured AFTER we'd scored our final goal, off of a final attack by us that resulted in four bodies down in front of their goal, and everyone still pushing, shoving, slashing, except for me who is stretch right out to tie up their third player's stick as she tried to plunder the scrum.  Pretty funny to see everyone down, even if Brenton had been a bit stunned after being knocked down.

The goal I shoulda got but didn't was when I went behind their goal, tried the wrap around, ended up with the puck loose behind the goalie, my stick mere inches from it, and him grabbing and immobilising it in a manner so as the ref couldn't see it.  I was tempted to kick the puck in out of frustration but didn't.  Good sly goal tending.

The other thing Matt the Goalie did really well was position his body and cover with his pads.  The only goals we got were from elevated shots, we just didn't do them often enough.  And when we did we tended to shoot at the goalie rather than the gaps.  The official record says that they outshot us 21-19 but I'd say their victory was due to his goal keeping.  Well done Matt. 

Next game, Snipers.

GP 7 G 17 A 10 Pts 27 +20 5/2/0 PIMs 6

Inline 5

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Game Day - Storm (1) d Knights (0) in Elimination Final

On Sunday the Knights played in our first Summer Season post season game, an elimination final against the Storm.  The winner continues into the semi final playoffs against top of table Blades.  The losers hang up their skates till next season.  We had won both regular season encounters, the first in a shootout and the second 3-1.  They had been close games.  For this game we had ten skaters and Tommy in goal.  Justine ran our bench with Nick assisting.  They had three staff, thirteen skaters and Peterson between the pipes.

Only one goal was scored the whole game, theirs in the later part of the second period.  For the rest of the game it seemed a see-saw battle, with them working their way into the combat zone in front of our net with sustained pressure, and us with our lightening strikes and quick waves of attack.  I didn't see their goal, having just left the ice before the play which it resulted from, but gather it was a coast to coast skate by their lanky forward, with Tommy being left to fend for himself.  If so, Tsk Tsk Tsk to us, for this is the kind of play that should not happen at this end of the season.  In a strange way, it's only fair that our season ended as a result.

Tommy was brilliant in goals and kept us in the game to the final siren.  He couldn't have done anything more.  He made some brilliant saves, sometimes ending up sprawled on the ice over the puck to kill a scrum that had gone crazy, sometimes making himself huge as he advanced towards a rushing forward, sometimes swatting the puck surely away from the kill zone.  Brave man, hats off.

I very nearly was the cause of the scoreline blowing out on at least two occasions.  Once in the first period when I failed to clear it from a scrum, ultimately leading to me being at one of the posts with Tommy flat across the line and a pile of bodies in front of him, the puck standing tantalisingly on its edge for a what seemed like several seconds in the few inches behind his back and out of my reach also (the ref blew his whistle to end the play, having lost sight of the puck).

The second near-screwup  occurred in the second period and began as a one on one that I felt quite comfortable with, despite the high speed.  I was skating backwards and controlling the gap as I tracked the forward to the point where I would arrest him properly when one of my skates bit into the ice and I went arse down backwards.  I swung my stick towards the puck as soon as I felt what was happening, allowed the momentum of my swung stick to carry me around to end up outstretched and face down towards my own goal.  The forward got by me, but I tangled him just sufficiently to enable our furiously backchecking centre to apply further pressure from behind and ultimately frustrate the shot.  Scary moment!

To counter these scary moments, there were a number of memorable plays with which I was involved.  As has been the case for recent game reports, I'll rehash them below in impressionist form.

In the first period I had my best shot at goal.  It began with me holding the blue line during one of our counterattacks after the siege of the first ten minutes.  I pinched down slightly to secure possession of the puck on the half board before firing it back in.  I did this twice on the play.  The third time I had to race for the puck, arriving at it at the same time as my opponent.  Our sticks combined to knock it into clean ice.  By the time we took the necessary paces to its location (still on the blue line) other players were arriving.  I managed to swipe my stick first, keeping the puck in the zone and bouncing it high off of someone elses blade.  No one is sure where the puck is for a split second, I spin around on the spot looking.  Sight it as it drops down onto the ice a few feet away.  Swing the stick, connecting with the puck as it touches the ice.  Whip it in to goal.  Hard and powerful and unexpected shot.  Goalie's glove save spoils it and silences the crowd.  Great shot though!

The second period was a more even affair, more controlled in our defence and a bit more sustained pressure up forward.  I think we hit the pipes once.  We also started taking penalties, but they weren't too good at holding it in the zone if we could push towards the blue (they were strong down low, though) so we killed them all off mainly by icing the puck with a moderately strong forecheck (it's fun to be patrolling the blue on the penalty kill).  Several times during the period I gathered the loose puck in our zone and skated it behind our net before passing it up the boards.

As you'd expect, the third period started out quite ferociously as we tried to claw back their one goal lead.  It didn't ease up until the final siren, though by then exhaustion and fatigue were taking their toll on tired legs and decision making faculties alike.  Early in the piece I had engaged with a forward around the halfboard, drawing a cluster of players into our vicinity.  The puck vanished amongst us all briefly.  Their forwards outnumbered us and were almost frantic in their intensity, so I just started swinging my stick in wide sweeping motions around the puck, clearing the ice of the sticks of both friend and foe until our centre could grab it and take it out of harms way.

Perhaps the other memorable moments of the third entailed tying up forwards in front of or behind our net.  In front, I 'boxed them out' if they were close in, tied up sticks or bodies if they were higher up.  I chased to the corners as required, sometimes gaining the puck clean and only once allowing a shot that I didn't manage to then block with skate or shoulder.  The hairiest few seconds involved arriving late in the corner against a rampaging wide skating winger, chasing him back and keeping the inside position even though always behind, pursuing him behind goal and forcing him wide as he tried to wrap around, repeating the whole thing immediately the other way, and a final third time before we were both taken out by another player.

I still felt like I was going strong, and my decisions were good and quick, but many of the other skaters were beginning to cluster, hesitate and excessively stickhandle.  It was a bit frustrating but also a simple fact.  Their extra line of forwards certainly paid off in those final minutes!  Disappointing after the final siren, but pride in Tommy and the team for having put up a good game.  the handshakes were genuine and smiles were warm.

The referees took the unusual step of congratulating the teams for playing an intense and heavy game, but all in a very good spirit.  One can't ask for more than that in a final. 

Except for a win!!!

Ice 5