Went to a fight, and saw a hockey game break out.

Last night was one of those games where you just sit on the bench and wonder why you bother.  Ok, that is an exaggeration.  I bother because I love to play, regardless of how out of control things get.

We had a full bench last night- 4 offensive lines and 3 defense pairings.  We played Realty Source, who we’ve been battling for first place all season.  Before the game they led us by a point in the standings.  Now they lead by 3 points.  Beh...  We lost 1-3, although we should have tied and the game should have gone to overtime, but after a non-call on a crushing hit on Justin, things just spiraled. 

I think I played pretty well, but was only on the ice for about 5 shifts.  I also banged my elbow early on, and had a few spills on the ice.  I only played one full shift in the third.  My second shift was about 3 seconds.  That kind of sucked.  I went onto the ice after Tony, the left wing I was following.  The play was blown dead pretty much as soon as I got into it.  Tony was on the ice after a penalty, so the lines were sort of messed up.  The guy who was playing with the line that was out jumped on the ice before the play was set, so I ended up being the 6^th man.  I told him I’d just came out, but he ignored me and skated to the face off.  I jumped off the ice to prevent a penalty, and was never on the ice again.  Beh, again…

The last couple of minutes of the game were pretty intense.  We were down 1-2, so we took a time out with 3 minutes left, and planned on who was going to be on the ice when we pulled Tyler at 1.30.  We got that sorted and even though Justin was going to be the center on the ice when we went to 6 on 5, he stayed on the ice.  Right off the faceoff, he headed up the ice and was crushed by two Realty Source players.  Neither made any move for the puck.  It should have been a penalty.  Justin stayed on the ice for a long time, but he refs didn’t call it, and played continued and Realty Source scored again.  Our bench went ape.  It went downhill from there.  With about a minute left, we went on 6 on 5 and put on loads of pressure.  There was loads of hacking, slashing, and pushing in front of the net, but we couldn’t put the puck in the net.  With 16 seconds left, shoving turned into a full on fight involving everyone on the ice.  The game was called but the anger didn’t stop.  We gathered our gear and skipped the handshake line- another first- and there was almost another fight.  Insanity.

Vickie spoke to the refs, since they screwed up so badly, and was told that it was our fault the game got out of control.  For those playing at home- the refs job is keeping the game in control.  I’m pretty sure we’ll meet Realty Source in the finals, which will be damn fun.