Once more into the breach!

We're in the finals again!  We beat The Punx 4-2.  It was a pretty rough game, but we really kept our cool, and they spent most of half the second and a lot of the third in the box.  I had a couple of shots and an assist.  I also whiffed completely on a perfect pass from Z.  The shame!

We play Team America again for the championship on the 2nd of December.  We haven't beaten them yet this season, but I know we can beat them.

Back to back

I've played in a few of the South Suburban pick up games that the other Paul sets up.  There a great time and great practice.  I need to go to more.  The night after a game though... I may have to rethink that. 

We had our last regular season game on Wednesday, against the Islaynders.  It was a good game, with lots of hard play.  They scored first, but we were able to come back for the win, 4-1.  I played pretty damn horribly, truth told.  Now on to the playoffs, against the Punx.

The pick up game was loads of fun and hard work, all around.  Besides Paul, there were a total of 5 of us Icemen- Tony, Brian, Darren and me.  We all wore white, in the hope that we could get some passing and breakout practice in.  That happened a bit, but the dark team had some really really good players, so they dominated mush of the night.  I felt much better about my play last night. 

Damn feet!

We had a tough loss last night against the Punx- 3-4.  It was a crazy one towards end with loads of penalties and Flink getting tossed out of the game- which was a load of crap.  He got roughed up behind the net and had some words with the guy who did it.  As he was heading to the bench, the guy came back up to him to continue the chirping, and there was some pushing- so he was gone.  The worst part was, the Punx have a troglodyte who is as close to a goon as D4 can get.  He's also incredibly mouthy, who bitches every time someone touches him.  He should have been thrown out as well, but...

I, however, had one of my best games ever, at least for the first two periods.  I was all over the ice, and had a few takeaways, a couple of breaks up the ice, and was able to start loads of breakouts.  I even got a puck off my skate, control it, and get it up the ice.  I was also  able to control the puck in the offensive zone corners, including one instance where I had the puck for a good 30 seconds without any pressure and finally got a decent centering pass.  No joy though... 


It wasn't all good though.  I ran out of steam in the third, and one of out our penalty kills, I blocked a shot with my thigh- nice bruise there- but the puck dropped to my feet and I couldn't get my stick on it.  A Punx player poked it from between my skates and was able to score.  I felt horrible.

Another first- I finally spent some time in the penalty box.   They weren't my penalties, though.  The first time I sat, it was with Dave, who had a minor and a major.  I sat for the minor and then got out on the ice.  The second time was for a bench minor.  I was supposed to serve 2 minutes and wait for the next whistle, but the Punx scored, so I was only in there less then a minute. 

It was a crappy way to lose a game, but I was happy with my play for the most part.  We have out last game next week, against the Islaynders, and then we'll meet the Punx again in the playoffs.