Game Day: Wheelers defeat Bumpers 11-3

Tonight I played my third inline hockey game for the Wheelers, scoring a goal and an assist in our lopsided victory.  My season (career) stats now stand at 3-0-0 2G 1A +4.  The bulk of the scoreline came about through the combination of one of our forwards (Petz, 7G) and a rookie goalie for the Bumpers.

Two of their three goals against us were on an open net as we hadn't covered our defence zone (forcing the goalie to come out more than is wise), and the third was right at the end of the sole power play of the match (me and my team-mate stuck in a slugfest in front of our goal and not able to change lines, as a result being knackered after two minutes of the penalty kill and being unable to swipe the puck away from the line from behind our goalie for the third time in about a second).  *sigh*

My goal was a (cleaner) mirror image from a week ago, this time with me carrying the puck to the centre and passing it deep into the right corner, then skating into the slot for the pass.  This week, I spent a moment juggling the puck into my control before a mid strength wrist shot finding the gap on the goalie's glove side.

Last week it was a mad scramble up and down the rink from the centre face-off on, leaving two of the three opposition skaters on the floor behind me, and as I fell onto the goalie clinically noting that the puck had crossed the line so the goal would count despite landing on the goalie.  All this after first stealing the rebounding puck from his defence and then pushing it through his legs.  Pretty neat for a first goal :)

Here's the video (how lucky am I!):

My First Goal

22 February, 2014

Generally speaking, this week I was much more measured in my possession of the puck than previously.  I carried it up rink several times (a first), tended to deke the puck into control when I got it before disposing of it (much better generally speaking than just blindly whacking it away from our goal) and even consciously evaluated my options on a number of occasions rather than just doing the first thing that sprang to mind.

The improvement is partly a result of spending an hour with puck and skates down at the local primary school of an evening through the week (the first time I've actually been able to properly practice with puck'nskate).  Partly a result of good communications within the Wheelers.  Partly a result of the nature of inline compared to ice (smaller rink, slower speeds, fewer players).

But more on all that some other time...