Grand Final Game Day - First Half

This is the second of three posts about the Grand Final game, inline Winter Season 2014.   For the other posts see here and here.

Our opening line was myself, Alex and Brenton (who took the opening face off).  I noticed that the Shufflers had split their top two players, with Alun on the wing and Mark still on the bench.  Last game, they'd put out their strongest line whenever possible.  I thought this would make our job in the opening shift a little easier.  As with our previous game, each side managed a high speed breakthrough rush in the first minute, both being repelled by the respective goalies.  Brenton and I completed our first shift at the first stoppage of play just after the first minute (disadvantage of not having full bench and thus not having complete line changes - someone always has to double shift).

And so the first half went.  Both goalies stopped everything that got through to them, both teams managed to block almost as many shots as got through, both teams fanned on almost certain scoring shots from wicked passes through the crease in front of an open goal, both goalies stopped at least one shot literally on the line.

My own impressions of the half are a montage of moments, hard to peel apart and of no defined sequence.  Most memorably, skating at full speed to break through their defence down the middle for a hard pass from Matt which I managed to receive from behind, the need for continued speed to stay a pace ahead of Mark in full pursuit, the rapid approach of the goalie filled goalmouth, the struggle to get the puck to a spot relative to me that I could get some kind (any kind!) of shot on, the realisation that the choice was to get the shot off or peel off and avoid collision, the decision to go for the shot and failure to put any force on it, diving over the goalie (making glancing contact with her shoulder with my thigh), head and shoulders glancing off the crossbar and I slid into the net and dislodged the goal.  Looking up to see everyone smiling at me (except the goalie who remained totally impassive focused).  After the game, btw, it was this incident that was probably mentioned to me most by viewers, at least five times by different people in the first few minutes. I guess it looked spectacular.  What it was was me not succeeding at a complicated maneuver in overspeed.

There was a lot of action in each goal crease, serving to neatly show the difference in character between styles of play of the two teams.  The Wheelers tended to be within stick range of the goalie, jamming at the puck as she tried to cover it, whacking it always from the wing into the slot and hammering at rebounds.  On one occasion the puck was loose under a pileup, with a clear 'tunnel' to the line.  The only thing preventing Matt the Skater pushing it through was the difficulty in manipulating his stick so that the blade was at exactly the right angle relative to the floor to slide between the gap in bodies to touch the puck.  Another occasion, Matt jamming at a puck standing on its edge on the goal line, only the post and tip of the goalie's blocker preventing it wholly crossing over.

Contrast this to the Shuffler's assaults on our goal, which tended to be accurate and hard shots from outside coming in on the angle, deflecting or rebounding to the opposite boards for another, tighter angle shot.  This would continue for a flurry of up to four shots before the play broke down.  The pattern of such a play meant that the first shot in the sequence was generally the most dangerous.  This was due to the angle being most direct on the first shot (exposing more of the goal than the subsequent, more acute, shots in the series), and this while the defence was likely to be still organising itself trying to contain the breakout).  It was disappointing in a sense because we should have been putting more pressure on the puck.  On the other hand, our skaters were busy denying them the slot or a passing option, so the shots were the price we paid to deny them better shots.  A risky method of dealing with the Shufflers snipers, but Matt was on song so it worked.

My own game during the first half was a continuation of the evolution that has been occurring in recent games.  My 'defensive' game continued and I took only two shots only on goal (the aforementioned crash over the goalie, and a less spectacular shot at about 15' from the right slot at speed that was easily caught).  I made sure I chased the puck hard defensively, so Matt didn't face as many flurries of shots from the boards as he did when I was on the bench.  I ended up swooping behind our goal to retrieve the puck or cut off an option on a number of occasions, not always winning the puck but always buying time for my team mates to pick up their player.  I didn't get caught pinching up to provide a short passing option to our attackers when they were threatened, and I didn't miss any passes.

Quite a bit of my play was in the defensive corners, retreiving and shielding the puck, or pressuring the carrier.  A lot of crashing into the boards to deny space and maneuver, a lot of close in work where a poke check could so easily become a trip (each time pulling my stick out enough to not bring them down, though on a couple occasions their own skating took them down over my blade on the floor when we weren't even near the puck).  Once,I chased down a breaking Mark as he streamed towards the low slot, caught and jostled him just sufficient to ensure that he wasn't in on balance in centre and couldn't take the cross.

I played probably six shifts, twice going off on the fly (my shifts would have averaged about ninety seconds).  When half time came it was still nil all and we were all operating at the outer edge of efficiency.  I think we were pretty happy with the general aspects of our game, being possession, passing and defensive coverage.  It was nice for once to be saying to ourselves, 'stick with what we're doing and good things will happen.'

We had (just) recovered our breath and pulse when the siren sounded for the second half.