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
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