EdmGoalie's 2011-12 Season

Got my second ice time of the season last night, and my first time sparing for the season. Got a call from the league manager at 4:30 yesterday asking if I could play at 6:30 for a team in division D2B (D division is by far the largest division, with 6 subdivisions - D1 A, B, C & D2 A, B, C). In any case, I agreed to go out, figured that an ice time before my regular team game on Thursday night couldn't hurt any.

FINAL (OT) - Anchormen 5 - Reapers 5
As I mentioned before, I never really know what to expect with playing for a new team, and this time was no different. Definitely didn't take very long to get into the game, as I think I made 3 or 4 stops before the game was more than 2 minutes old. Once the guys on my team (I played for the Anchormen in this one) got into the scheme of things, the game evened out and it started looking much better. I didn't have anything overly crazy to face in the first, although I did face a partial break where the shooter tried to go far side, and rang it off the post. First period ended in a scoreless tie.

The second period is where things really got going. The play opened up, and there was a lot of back and forth. And a lot of odd man rushes coming my way. About 4 minutes in, I allowed my first goal of the game. I got caught cheating on a 2-on-1, and the guy carrying the puck in managed to tuck it over my left pad, just under my glove. A short time later, we struck back, and tied the game at one. The second goal was also an odd man rush - a 3-on-1 this time, but the trailing player never really factored in. Puck came down my right side, pass went cross crease, I slid across only to have the puck passed back the other way. As a desperation attempt, I swung my right arm across the open net, but it was to no avail. Not much more I could have done there. A few minutes later, I allowed another to put us down 3-1, and it's one I should have had. I made the initial save, and the puck ricocheted in behind the net. I saw the player with the puck fake to go around for a wrap around, so I stayed down where I was, but I guess in moving around, my pad came off the post, and he banked it off my skate and in. Not a great goal, but I can't dwell on it. It's in, and that's that.

After that third goal (almost immediately after), I faced a clear cut breakaway from the red line. Guy came in fast, and faked five-hole, and tried to slide it by my right pad, but I recovered nicely from the fake, and kicked out the puck. About 30 seconds after that, I faced another partial break, and got my blocker on it after it was shot top corner, and knocked it out of play. This sequence seemed to fire up the guys a bit, and the netted two quick ones to end the period tied at 3.

The third period was a brutal start to say the least. One of our guys got stripped of the puck a few seconds after the opening face off and on the shot that was taken from the hash marks, the puck bounced a couple of times before bouncing off my pad and just inside my left post. About a minute later, one of my d-men had the puck at the blue line, had his pass picked off, then stumbled and fell just inside the line to allow another breakaway. This time though, I couldn't stop it, and we were suddenly down 5-3. The guys settled down after that, and started to control the play again. I had a few shots come in, but nothing overly crazy, and I kept them out. With about 4 minutes to go, we got the games only power play. Following the face off to open the power play, my d-man was immediately stripped of the puck at the offensive blue line, and I had another clear cut breakaway! This time, the guy came in down my right side, cut across the crease, and tried to tuck it five-hole. Nothin' doing this time. Stopped the puck, and kept the play moving the other way. After some good cycling down low, we scored on the PP and closed the gap to one. With about 90 seconds left, the guys from the bench were yelling at me to come in when the clock hit 50 seconds. We managed to get the tying goal with just over a minute to go, following a goalmouth scramble at the far end. I actually had another breakaway to stop in the dying seconds, and stopped the guy cold, we'd pushed it to OT.

In overtime, the format changes, where it's a 5 minute period, 3-on-3, straight time until the final minute of the period. Things were pretty tight the first half of OT, and you could see that guys didn't want to be the one to make a mistake. After that though, things blew wide open. With about a minute and a half to go in OT, we were hemmed in our own zone for a good 20 seconds or so. Puck finally came down low to the primary goal scorer for the other team (he'd scored 4 of their 5 goals), and it seemed like he had all the time in the world. After what seemed like forever, he tried to go upstairs, and I absolutely robbed him with the glove. Even the referee was laughing at what had just happened. He had the game on his stick, and I took it away. Fantastic feeling. Thirty seconds later, we had another defensive lapse, and a big scramble ensued in front of the net. The scramble lasted for a solid 10 seconds, and I think I made 3 or 4 stops while down on my stomach trying to cover up the puck in the mess of skates and sticks. Bodies were everywhere, but I somehow kept it out and secured the tie.

All-in-all, I'd say it was a success. There were a couple of goals I'd like to have back, but I felt very satisfied with my game, and apparently the guys did too. The captain took my number to give me a shout if they ever needed a spare, so things are looking up. Next game is Thursday night with my now regular team. I could definitely get used to this ice time every few days thing... haha.

So the first stats are finally up on the ASHL site for the start of our fall/winter season. I've started my own little tracking spreadsheet (since I seem to play for a bunch of different teams at some point...) and after the first two games, things are looking not too shabby.

Total numbers after two games, 0-1-1 (W-L-T) with a 3.80 GAA and a 0.846 SV%. Anything for a save percentage that is hovering around 0.850, I'm more than happy with. According to the ASHL site, my totals before this season started had my SV% hovering closer to 0.800.

I've definitely felt better in games since I attended my goal camp at the beginning of August, and with playing full time now, I can only go up from here. Game number 2 for my regular team (game number 3 on the year) goes tonight. Update will be posted tomorrow morning sometime.

Had my second regular team game last night, and man did it feel a hell of a lot longer than a 39 minute game. I think the timekeeper miscounted the shots I faced, but then again, I always seem to think that I faced more than they gave me credit for. That being said, onto the recap.

FINAL - QuickShots 1 - Shockers 4
Ended up being very close until the third period, when two quick ones got by me. I did everything humanly possible to keep my team in it, and wound up with player of the game honors for it. That being said, if this is the team I have in front of me all season long, it's going to be a damn long season!

First period didn't start off ideal for me. The first shot of the game got by me, and it really shouldn't have. Shot came from just below the face off dot to my left, and beat me on the ice in the far corner of the net. I really thought I had the angle, but I was obviously too far over, and I just flat out missed it. Twenty-five seconds into the game, and we're down 1-0. Shortly afterwards, one of my d-men took a dumb penalty (dumb in the sense that it shouldn't have been called..) and suddenly we're on a PK. It seemed like we were running around in our end for about 1:30 of the 2:00 penalty, and I had to make some big saves to keep the score as it was - a couple of which, I had no business making - at all. Biggest one probably came with about 45 seconds left in the penalty. I made the first stop on my right post, but couldn't smother the rebound, and the puck got passed quickly to the far left where a forward was waiting for the easy tap in. I gave it everything I had, and since I didn't have time to get to my feet and make the maneuver, I stretched out my left pad as far as I could, and kicked out the puck JUST before it crossed the goal line. A few minutes later, we managed to knock in a goal mouth scramble to tie it up, and we ended the first period tied at one.

The second period was probably the most tiring period of hockey I've ever played. By the end of it, my legs were feeling like they did after the first day of goalie camp last month. I could barely get the energy to skate back to the bench afterwards. The one goal that did beat me was a scramble in front, and this was after being in our end for a solid two minutes straight (I really wish I was exaggerating that...). We just couldn't seem to get the puck out of our end. I made some pretty typical saves, but also had a couple that probably should have been goals - all in all, a good period personally. Ended the period down 2-1.

As I mentioned earlier, the third started with two quick goals. The first, the guy came in down the boards on my right, then went to cut across the crease, but pulled me off the post just enough to fire the puck against the grain and bury it. The next came about a minute later, when a broken play in the slot left the puck on end for a guy following up the original puck carrier. He took a swipe at it, and it knuckled in, and got very high very quickly. I got a piece of it, but it wasn't enough - puck hit the bar, and went straight down into the net. Can't help but feel like I could have had that one. There wasn't a lot that really went down in the third period - the other team was mostly just trying to kill the clock after they bumped up to a 4-1 lead, and after the way the previous period went, I was perfectly okay with that.

All-in-all, I think I played pretty well. Allowed 4 goals on 26 shots, which hovers around that 0.850 mark that I'm aiming for, so I'm okay with that. Through 3 games (with 2 teams in 2 different divisions), I'm now sitting at 0-2-1, with a 3.87 GAA and a 0.846 SV%. Not stellar, but pretty damn good for me personally. Apparently we were also without our top two players last night, so hopefully things get better from here on out.

Worst part of playing for a bad team is you get tired from so many shots. But the best part of playing for a bad team is you get a lot of shots and you're able to work on things. Just gotta keep that mindset that you can't give up on any goals, and the fact that you're keeping the score so close despite ending up losing shows your motivation and ability. Great job!

Originally Posted by synesthete

Worst part of playing for a bad team is you get tired from so many shots. But the best part of playing for a bad team is you get a lot of shots and you're able to work on things. Just gotta keep that mindset that you can't give up on any goals, and the fact that you're keeping the score so close despite ending up losing shows your motivation and ability. Great job!

Couldn't agree with you more. I was completely bagged after that second period last night. I had one of my buddies come out as a spare, and he'd go to throw the puck around the boards, one of my forwards would stop it, and then their clearing "attempt" would go right into the opposing d-man standing on the boards at the blue line. Frustrating as hell, but good in the sense that it keeps me busy.

On a side note, thank you for the kind words regarding motivation and ability. That goalie camp last month has definitely made a difference, and now that I'm on a team full time, I can only stand to get better!

So last night, I wound up picking up another game, filling in on a friends team. They're a division up from my full time team this year, but it's the level that I've grown accustomed to, so I was excited. The game went very well, finally got W #1 for the year for starters, and only had 2 goals against.

FINAL - PeltTraders 4 - Oilers 2
By the time we got on the ice, I was actually kind of thinking that this game may end up being a long night. I barely got my stretches in, and didn't get any warmup before the referee's lined up for the opening faceoff. All-in-all, the first period was pretty decent. Lots of back and forth play, and I got a couple easy shots early on to compensate for not having a warm up. We scored about halfway through the period to take the 1-0 lead. With about 2:30 left in the first, an opposing forward came in down my right side, and took a quick wrist shot. The shot got up a lot higher than I was expecting, ended up hitting my mask, then falling behind me, off the back of my leg, and into the net. I got up and momentarily lost it on the referee because of the shot off the mask -- last season, the rule was any shot off the mask, and the play was blown dead, so under that, it shouldn't have been a goal. Apparently though, they changed it this year so that if it's still a scoring chance, they have to let it play out. Just glad I didn't take a penalty for unsportsmanlike... lol. In any case, game was tied, and that was that. Literally 30 seconds later though, there was a COMPLETE defensive end breakdown, puck came out from the end boards right onto the tape of a waiting forward at the top of my crease, and the puck was in the net before I could even face the shooter. None of my guys were anywhere near this guy, and we finished the first down 2-1.

Second period brought much more work, and I stopped 'em all. Early in the second, I had a guy with a clear breakaway from the centre line - tried to tuck it five-hole; nothing doing. I'll give my defense credit after that second goal - they held the majority of the shots to the outside, although, a few of them, I was screened pretty good on. We managed to get the equalizer on a goal mouth scramble, and ended the second tied at 2.

Third period was more of the same. Faced a couple of really good shots, but stood my ground. One guy came in through the slot, and tried to roof it glove side. Didn't catch the puck, but caught more than enough of it to make sure it cleared the net and stayed out. With a little less than half the period to play, we get a power play, and get the 3-2 lead on a beautiful deflection of a point shot. Then, with about 3:30 left in the third, one of my d-men took a double minor for body checking, and then 30 seconds later, we took another for tripping, so we're down two men with 3:00 to play. Had a couple good shots against on the PK as well, but again, stood my ground. Then, just after the 2 man advantage had ended, we won a defensive end faceoff, and my d-man on the ice managed to put the puck in the open net at the other end from behind our goal line. He was just trying to clear the zone, but got a nice curl on it once it crossed the far blue line, and he sealed the deal. Kill the clock from there, and we've got ourselves a 4-2 victory.

Official stats say I faced 28 shots, so according to my personal stat sheet, that moves me up to a 1-2-1 record, with a 2.74 GAA and a 0.868 SV%. Definitely feeling good out there. This is going to be a long stretch though. After playing last night, I now play 3 more games in the next week and a half - possibly 4...

Originally Posted by edmgoalie

...last season, the rule was any shot off the mask, and the play was blown dead, so under that, it shouldn't have been a goal. Apparently though, they changed it this year so that if it's still a scoring chance, they have to let it play out...

Congrats on the win.

That's the weirdest rule I've ever heard. I wonder why that rule was created.

Nice! And not bad stats at all. With so many upcoming games it'll be important to stay healthy and energetic. Get that sleep, haha!

Also, how do you feel that not getting as many stretches and a warm up impacted you? Personally, I do about seven quick stretches and I'm ready to go.. I hate warm-up. If anything I basically just stand there and let the puck hit me. I'll move a little, but nothing great.