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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


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