JFunk

GM1 was played last night, we won 4-2 in a very intense battle. The playoff atomsphere is so different compared to the regular season. Every situation, even the easy stop the puck behind the board play felt ackward early in the game. My nerves weren't helped either by the fact i never got a shot on goal until 11mins into the first period. I was shuffling around after every whistle just to keep my legs loose. Then 15min's into the first we score! 1-0, only to be followed by a gaffe from yours truly 4min's later. The opposing team has the puck deep in our zone, my blocker side when they wrap the puck around the boards to the point where the dman immediately takes a quick slapper. But it hits someone on the way to the goal and trickles right towards the left post, my glove side. Now i could have easily covered it and took the faceoff in our zone, but instead i decide to pass it off shortly to my left dman... However a guy closed on him quickly which forced him to pass behind our net to our right dman and he tries to clear it up the middle, its intercepted in the slot and there dman blasts one low blocker and the game is tied. Right after my left dman skates buy and screams "you should have covered that" DUH! I just messed up big time, i know! That goal is totally my fault but i have to let it go. We go into the second period tied. At the short break at our bench i notice the other team only has 9 players compared to our 15.

The second period begins and this is where the referee's decide they wanna play too. There's another blog going which i strongly agree and it has to do with referee's, i'll get to that shortly... my team starts to really play a dump' n ' chase kind of game to wear down there dman early in the first. Its working to a charm, but were not getting any quality shots. When the opposing team finally gets the puck out they dump the puck down the ice and our dman assumes this is going to be icing, its waved off and he gets back reallly slow and there's already a player closing on him. They battle to the front of the net with the puck between there legs when it comes out to my left and i reach for it extending my stick like a poke check and i then go on to fumble the puck around when there player takes a swing at it, puts it under my arm... there now leading 2-1. Gaffe #2 on my behalf. Im totally rattled at this point! We should be killing this team but i've made two mistakes which have ended up in the back of our net. Just gotta forget about it. Then in amazing fashion we tie it up 1min later! and the parade to the penalty box starts. Half the game is complete and there have been no penalties called. Coincidentally 10 penalties are called in the second half of the game, 9 of which went against my team! As the second period finishes up we've taken 4 penalties compared to 1 penalty for the opposition. They had one 5 on 3 opportunity at the end of the second but im in the zone stopping all chances; but also affraid of what might happen if i let in another before the second intermission flood. End of two periods and the game is tied 2-2.

The third period begins and we dominate in there zone off and on for the first 5min's of the period. They got a couple of minor chances within the first 5min, but as soon as we get the puck its back into there zone. At this point there dman are bent over after every whistle and we take advantage. After a lenghly battle down low we make a pass to a pinching dman and he blasts it by the goalie and we now lead 3-2, 7min's into the period. After some brief play in there zone, my dman make a poor play at the opposing blue line which leads to a breakaway against yours truly. The opposing player tries a simple forehand to backhand deke and then go five hole, but is easliy denied...The ref's take over from here. There determined in my opinion to make a game out of it. Its pathetic in my mind but what can you do. With 10min's left in the period they call two penalties against us on the same play one of which leads to a game ejection of our best dman (3 penalties in a game and your kicked out for the remainder of the game in this league) and were down to a 5 on 3 PK situation. The opposing team peppers me with shots for there entire PP... Im exhausted! and im running out of water! We kill off the 5 on 3, but right after we get another penalty called and back to the PP the opposing team goes. They set up again and get a flurry of opportunties but I came up clutch and maintained our lead, then after a scramble at the point one of our top goal scorers gets a shorthanded breakaway and puts us up 4-2. Going into the last 3min's of the third im thinking they've called enough penalties already... Wrong! With 2:44 remaining on the clock they pull the classic double penalty call and were down 5 on 3 for the third time now. They call a timeout immediately to figure out a gameplan and pull there goalie. Its now 6 on 3 and they try everything, screened point shots, one-timers from the point, one-timers from the faceoff dots, cross crease passes, wrap arounds and eventually just throw the puck on net in hope of a good bounce. It was the definition of a swarm. With all of there chances they couldn't score. What was so amazing was the amount of blocked shots by my team during the final flurry. This is mens league hockey and there's guys who risk severe injury to block a shot... its simply amazing!!! Thats playoff hockey. We won game 1, 4-2 and wait for game two on Monday Aug 9th.

this should have been a whole new blog post instead of a comment. love the detail.