Go hockey team!

The headline would read...  Icemen hands undefeated team it's first loss of the season!

Yup- we finally won one!  We beat a group of guys no one really seems to like, to boot.  Even their name makes people cringe, including me- She Hit Me First.  Horrible.

We played our guts out, but the real reason we won was because of Tyler- our goaltender.  He was amazing! I was pretty much a non-entity in most of the game, but got to play the spoiler in a few situations, getting in the way of passes, and clearing the puck.  I consciously tried to put myself in the play more as the game went on- which worked a bit, but we were skating so hard, that there were a few times I went in deep, that I struggled to get back.  I am also having real trouble keeping the puck on my stick.  Luckily I didn't pass to opposing players, but there were a couple of times when I should have been able to skate out of the zone, but ended up having to chase around our defensive zone some more after loosing the puck.  In my defense- I always try and play the point defenseman really closely- and getting a pass is sometimes not a possibility.  Backwards skating and puck handling- those are the two things I really need to work on- more stick and pucks!
I also got chirped at for the first time- well, not directly.  I was covering the point when the defenseman I was covering kept asking for the puck, saying he was open- which of course, I took as an insult.  I spoiled the pass he finally got.  Heh...

The game was one of those defense battles.  We scored first, pretty early in the first period.  They came back and scored, not long after we did.  Within a quick span, we scored again.  Mike, the guy who scored, was amazed.  The goal was a pure 'garbage goal'.  He just kept whacking at the rebounds until the puck trickled in.  That was it for the scoring.  The rest of the game was back and forth with great defensive play and goal tending.  We played really well- probably the best we have ever played as a team.  Everyone played their positions and we kept the points really well covered.  It was a great game, and a great experience!