Grand Final Game Day - Second Half

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

The Wheelers took the Division II 2014 Winter premiership at North Vikings Inline Hockey Club by defeating the Shufflers 1 - 0 in a tight Grand Final yesterday afternoon.  Alex scored the only goal from an assist by Merrilyn about five minutes into the second half.  Also in the second half, each team received a single two minute minor, Shufflers losing Mark for high sticking and Wheelers losing Brenton for tripping.  Each team got about twenty shots on goal.  I thought the goalies were the stars of the game but the judges said that I was, so I got the MVP award for the day!

The second half of the premiership game was as torrid as the first, plenty of bodies hitting boards and floor and exhausted players changing on the fly.  Again, my memories are patchwork and non sequential, excepting the opening and closing plays.

Our first line was me, Merrilyn and Alex.  I took the faceoff (I think they got the puck, but not to advantage).  Opening shift was almost two minutes long this time, ending up with me changing at the next stoppage.  Again, I found myself playing a two way defensive role, rarely penetrating the top third of the rink and spending most of my game in the defensive zone.  My role in this half was more 'fireman' and 'puck distributor'.

In the 'fireman' role, on a couple of occasions, I had to race to make defensive coverage when one or more of the opposition got behind us and in possession.  If outnumbered, had to try and pick the play to remove the most dangerous option (usually a pass).  Thus, picking off errant passes, winning races for deflected pucks on the end boards, hussling their defence when he tried the same (stymie his outlet and give me time to swing back into the D zone while our carrier moved forward).

The Shufflers started putting their best line forward during this period, I found myself scanning the opposition to try and track who was where (one of their skaters could blow away all of ours except me so I had to ensure he was covered if he discovered what he thought was a skating opportunity).  On several occasions I found myself skating hard on the forecheck, pressuring their puck distribution service while it was still in their back third.  In retrospect, I knew that their offence worked best with two wings advancing, so it was good to tie one up lopsided!

In the 'distributor' role I collected the puck from behind our net or in our corners, slowed up possession until my team mates had found some room, passed.  Sometimes I skated the puck up, sometimes I just held it in the backlines.  On a couple of occasions I skated it up the boards, chipping it past my opponent and thus creating a three on two for a brief moment.

It was one of these moments which led to the only goal of the game, with me going up the right board, crossing to Alex and swinging towards the centre as Merrilyn moved up the centre for Alex's rebound.  There ensued a number of shots, rebounds, gather and pass between Alex and Merrilyn, with me at one time providing a deep 'reset' option for Alex as two of the opposition bore in on him.  Eventually, she passed it through a scrum to Alex who took a moment to aim and then popped it in the high net.  The Wheelers went one up.

The ensuing period of the game was very tense.  Fatigue was threatening some of us, the less motivated becoming tunnel visioned and not getting on the backcheck, let alone the forecheck, when it was needed.  Not only that, but not getting off the rink when it was obvious fatigue had set in. 

Unsurprisingly, each team also took a penalty over the following five minutes.  They went first, while I was on the floor, for a high sticking incident.  I was deep in an offensive corner and had crossed the puck in to the slot.  There were three or four players present there.  I was about to drop back to cover the centreline when the whistle blew.  I stayed on through the ensuing power play.  This ended early because we managed to get a tripping foul called on us.  Again, I was in the corner and had put it into the slot to Brenton.  Somehow in the melee that threatened, he was called.

I stayed on for most of our penalty kill, taking quite an aggressive approach.  In other words, I threatened to harass their deep 'reset' passes and puck distributors, causing a fair bit of needless passing on their part.  Of course, this would have just left us exposed if I hadn't also gotten back first to cover the slot as our deeper defender fought for the puck.  So I was pretty buggered when I crashed the boards near our gate and dumped the puck forwards so I could change on the fly.  I was back out again before I had my breath completely back under control, necessitated by the fact that Merrilyn who'd been there for the whole penalty kill needed to come off and I was the most able replacement.  Tough gig.

And it got tougher as the clock clicked down.  I was out there for the final couple minutes, generally tying up the puck on the face off and killing time with possession.  With eight seconds to go on the clock there was what we thought would be a final faceoff, which turned into a brief timeout as the referees conferred with the time keepers before informing us that there was an additional 15 seconds to be added.  The final face off was a tied affair, with me pushing it towards the boards and then covering the puck and obstructing the opposition until I could chip it a few feet up the boards where Alex had made position.  And thus it went until the siren sounded.  We'd won!

Our only real celebration, a group hand clasp with a resounding '1-2-3 Wheelers!'  Very resolute!

Premiers!