Another year and I still can't skate backwards...

It’s been a lazy couple of weeks- I was off work for 12 days for the holidays- good stuff!  Except the 12^th day was because I was sick.. and still am.  I missed out on New Years day skating because of that.  I’ll be skipping out on the game against Team America tonight as well.

We had a spite filled game against the Punx a couple of weeks ago.  It was a really early game, so Alisha and Vibs were able to come.  Jared’s fiancé Laura was there as well.  We did not make a good showing for our families.  We lost 0-4.  The game was pretty dirty and included quite a bit of blood on the ice.  One of the Punx- Paul I.- wears a shield, not a cage and got caught on the chin early in the game.  He took a errant stick, but it was a Punx fault-I think…. They went to the box anyway. They weren’t happy.  They were also not happy with Tony’s aggressive play and at the end of the game, several of the Punx skipped the handshake.  Anyway, it was our first lost.

Our next game started the cycle again- against the Islynders.  It was a different gam altogether for us.  We played well and calm, and Justin had 4 of our 6 goals.  We won 6-2.  The Islanders were getting pretty frustrated and one of their players nearly got kicked out of the game.  One of Justin’s goals- a shorthanded goal that he scored right off the face off. Elicited shouts from their bench- jealousy rears its ugly head.   The game also provided me with another first- my first involvement with a kerfuffle!  Our goalie Adam played his last with us, before moving to L.A., and wanted to try a double stack save- something he’s never dared tried.  The chance came right at the buzzer and it was a beaut of a save.  The Islyneders decided they wanted one more shot though, and one of their players drilled a shot into Adam’s back, he’d flipped to face the net in his save.  Sean jumped into the offending players face and they started in on each other.  I was facing away from the fisticuffs, and found myself confronted with 3 Islynders heading straight for me.  I decided to keep them from my teammates and started pushing.  It was pretty fun actually.  It all ended well though, and after the handshake, there were several side conversations between our team and theirs- we all left the ice friends.

Finally- I started a new Learn to Play Hockey course at DU.  Jared is enrolled too, as well as Gary, a friend of Jared called Jeremy, and my friend Danny.  It’s a huge class of about 30, and I still embarrass myself with backwards skating.. or lack or ability.  Anyway… here are some pictures from our game with the Punx.

Hockey with friends, won't you?

We started our new season last week, and so far it’s going pretty damn good.  We’re undefeated, including our first regular season win against Team America last night.  We beat a fired up Islaynders in a shootout win 4-3 (we scored 3 shootout goals to their 1) last week.  They are really putting great games together.  The game against Team America was a real tough one…  we don’t really get along with these guys.  Lots of contact, lots of chirping, lots of chipping, lots of penalties.  Team America cried all night long, complaining to the refs anytime one of them went down or got touched.  We had a few defensive breakdowns, and Adam saved our collective arses on a few breakaways.  The game went scoreless until there was less than 10 seconds on the clock, when Z moved the puck up the ice to Eli, who made a great pass to Justin who buried it.  It was awesome!  Of course Team America called shenanigans and said the play was offside.  I think the refs had finally had enough and shut them down.  Good stuff!

A good scooter friend of mine- Jared- has joined our team this season.  He’s still finding his legs, but he’s been having a great time.  With the horrible snow last night, he picked me up with another friend, Gary.  Gary has an AWD truck.  Gary joined us for the night- the first time he’s played in a few years.  It was pretty cool.  The three of us are doing the Jan-Feb DU Learn to Play Hockey course as well.  Finally more than one night of hockey a week! 

REPEAT!

Whoa…  Imagine my Keanu Reeves impression there… Whoa.  We not only won the D4 Championship again, we pretty much totally destroyed Team America in the process.  We won 7-2!  Let me say that again... 7-2.  I don’t think we ever had less than a 3 goal lead in the entire game- except maybe for a few minutes in the 2^nd period, when the score was 3-1.  It was one of the best game the Icemen have put together, ever.  
 

I have to admit, I had some reservations that we were going to repeat in a straight D4 championship, especially against Team America.  We didn’t beat them all season- although we always gave them a tough game.  I was really pleased that Big Bear changed the final schedule. We were supposed to play on the 24^th of November.   If we’d played on the 24^th, half our team, including me, would have been gone.  I’m guessing that Team America had the same issue, so we got rescheduled for the 2^nd of December.  We had a full bench of three forward lines and two defensive pairings, with our incredible goalie Adam in net.  
 

I played right wing with Justin in the center and Herman on the left.  I’m not going to say we were the best line in the game, but we did score.. oh, 5 of the goals in the game!  Herman had 3 and Justin had 2.  I assisted on 2 of them.  I also had a load of shots on goal, including a couple that should have scored.  I was only a +4 for the night though, since I left the ice right before Justin scored his second goal.  We scored our first 3 goals in the first.  I assisted on the third, and was just to the right of the goal when it went in.  The Team America goalie lost his mind.  He slammed his stick on the post and started yelling at his team.  I thought he was going to go after them.  
 

The penalties were about even, although I think Team America had a couple more times on the PP.  They scored one of their goals a man up.  We did get called for one bad call (a supposed Holding on Brian, when he was just going for the puck), but they didn’t score on that one.  Still no penalties for me.  
 

I played a really good game.  In the way I do, I blocked loads of shots as Team America tried to leave their zone, and was able to plunk the puck to someone on more than half of them.  I was also able to get the puck into play when Justin won a few face-offs in my direction, including a nice drop pass to Sean in the third.   I lined up against a couple of TA’s newer players- at about my level.  Towards the end of the game, the left winger I lined up against in face-offs would just grab onto me to keep me from joining into the play.  I eventually just started swerving on him, which surprised both him and me- I’m getting better on my skates.  In fact, I think I’ve gotten to the point that I can spend less time thinking about my feet and start paying more attention to my stick. I missed a few pucks that I could have sent towards the net or the TA zone.
 

After we won, the time keeper took our photo and gave us our winner beers and t-shirts.  We celebrated on the ice for so long that the Zamboni driver had to wait for us, just sitting there while we reveled.  We continued our celebrations in the dressing room, and then about half the team went to a local sports pub for more beer and wings.  It made for a great, but late night.  We may very well be on our way to a dynasty!