Streak ends at two...

Holey crap!  What an intense game!   Although our steak ended, and we lost 5-2, we played hard and physical.  

Now, it's pretty common in sports (GO SPORTS!) for platitudes about getting off to a slow start to go flying around the dressing room.  That's our excuse, but for the record, it was true last night.  Our opponent of the night- Low Down Dirty Shame- scored on us twice within the first few minutes and once more before the first period ended.  We weren't skating, screwing up our changes, and having defensive breakdowns.  We finally got our game together about midway in first period, and frankly, our two goals were much more impressive than their five.  Justin, one of our best right wingers, finally broke out and scored our first goal.  It was a great close in shot, with loads of bodies banging in front of the net.  Our second was an amazing backhanded shot from the left point by Jim- probably our most physical defensemen.  A brilliant shot!  We pressed the play fully from then, but weren't able to score again. 

Aside from the scoring, there was also a lot of bad blood in the game.  Low Down have a few really good players, but they were a touchy bunch.  One of our wingers, Ty, kept bumping one particular player, we called him number 9, in the corners, and he took exception to it every time.  Towards the end of the third, they finally went at it.  It didn't come to blows, no gloves dropped- which would have led to them be kicked out for the rest of the season- but it was something new for me.  Unfortunately, Mike, another of our defensemen got involved after the initial whistle, so both he and Ty went to the box.  We killed the penalty, but there was no more scoring.  

What could have really put the bad feeling over the edge happened right at the buzzer.  One of our centers, Ben, was clipped in the face with a high stick as he made a last second rush up the ice.  He's one of the players on our team that doesn't wear any kind of a shield and he went down like a rock.  He was bleeding pretty badly, and everyone was a bit panicked.   He got a towel and some water on it and after a few minutes was able to get up.  We're lucky to have a doctor on our team- Herman.  He thought he could use a couple of stitches, but, luckily, the cut was to the side of his eye and his eyesight wasn't threatened.  The player that clipped him was one of the first people to make sure he was ok and apologized profusely.  It was just a regular hockey accident.  Full cages, boys and girls!  Ben was able to join us in the handshake.

I hung out for quite a while in the dressing room after the game.  Someone brought beer!  While talking about the game, we realized that number 9 didn't participate in the handshake, which is hugely disrespectful, since we play for fun and comradeship.  Vicki is going to bring it up to the rink.  Ben got some ice on his eye and when he left, you could barely tell he'd been injured.   I am feeling pretty comfortable with a lot of my team.  I haven't been part of a group like this since I was in a scooter club, and it feels good to be part of a group again.  Even though I know I'm one of the team's weakest players, I don't feel at all like it's held against me.  Bad plays may elicit complaints on the ice, but it never follows us into the dressing room.  I do have to say in my defense- I don't make many horrible mistakes- just am not a great player.  Who knows what's said when people leave, but nothing negative about any player has been said when I'm around.  This continues to be an amazing experience!  

Knee wise- I'm heading to the Doctor today.  Of course, my knee feel better than it has since I injured it all those weeks ago.