Muse back!
August 01, 2004 / Sunday
Insane Puck Posse Game 13: Scarlet Fever
This was the team that'd beaten us twice this season. Going into tonight's game, they also had more wins than we did (how did that happen?). The last time we faced them, I traded away our good goalie and they stacked up with awesome subs. They beat us. This time, I kept our goalie and brought in a couple of those same subs. I wanted to see how it would work the other way around...
Final score: 7-2. Hrmm, I think it worked pretty well (for us).
I realize that this is my blog, but so as not to piss off and/or bore my readership, this is the part where I talk about myself, mainly so I can document for future reference (my blog is my memory bank). Skip to the end of the talkaboutself section if you don't want to read about me me me.
<talkaboutself>
Holy crap, I got faster! Power skating camp has now paid for itself. I chased down every puck that went into the corner, and I had so much time with it that I was able to wait and look for a lot of dead on passes to my linemates. It's amazing what being patient with that extra second will do for you. Had a few breakaways, too, and instead of two-hand handling it most of the way, I was comfortable poking with one hand and skating with it until I got into the other team's zone.
Tonight, I got my first ever hat trick in my women's league. It only took me 5 seasons and half a week of intensive skating lessons.
First goal, got a pass from Julie and took it up the boards on the right. There was a D on me, but I skated past her. For the first time ever, I looked not at the goalie, but at the net, and shot it exactly where I was looking. I watched the puck hit the back of the net, three feet off the ice. Did I just do that? Whoa, I did.
The second goal was a funny one. I chased the puck into the right corner, got it, looked for a pass, but Julie and Doris were both tied up. I skated it up high and shot it, but it went wide right. It bounced off the boards behind the net and came out on the left. I skated at it, and knocked it in as the goalie tried to get over on that side. I unintentionally passed to myself. Ha!
Third goal, another breakaway. I got by 2 D just past the blue line, approached the net left-center, the goalie came out just a little too far, I pulled the puck right, and slid it in around her.
We had a lot of fans in the stands today. They cheered when we scored. That was rad.
After my third goal, Kevin started shuffling the lines, and I got put on D halfway through the 2nd period. I was totally fine with that, since by that time the other team had decided to send every skater in my vicinity at me. Ow, quit trying to knock me over!
</talkaboutself>
Playing D is hard! I was totally exhausted by the end of the 2nd. How do you D folk do it?
Amusingly, I kept falling on D, and not because I was shoving people, but because I'd skate my ass off to the puck at the end of our zone, and as I tried to take it around the boards, I'd realize I was going too fast for my abilities and I'd run myself into the boards and fall down. Yeah, that's me, fresh off a hat trick, falling over untouched twice a shift.
At one point, we had 2 D playing foward and 2 forwards playing D. That was pretty amusing. What's that? Keep the puck in front of the blue line hash marks? It worked out just fine, though.
I finished off the game with a high-sticking penalty. Final tally: 3 goals, 1 assist (nice shot, Julie!), and 1 penalty. Marci got 1 of each, too. Now if Marci and I had gotten into a fight, we'd have had the complete set.
As an added bonus, I'd had lunch with Scully (no, that's not her real name) earlier, and she gave me a bunch of homemade cookies. I brought them to the rink, and we all got to have cookies after the game. Thanks, Scully!
And in a final post-game note, I zoned out analying game excerpts on my drive home, blew by the 380 interchange, and didn't realize it until I was well into Brisbane.
At least it wasn't Berkeley.
August 1, 2004 10:26 PM | Insane Puck Posse