Game 3: Ravens

Our Saturday afternoon game had us facing a team we had to beat to secure the 2nd place spot in our bracket (which would move us into the playoffs). If for some reason we tied them, we'd also be tied for 2nd place, and the tie-breakers were (1) wins, (2) penalty minutes (fewer), (3) goals for (more), and (4) goals against (fewer). There was quite a bit of talk about tie-breakers in the locker room before the game, which kind of bugged me; I'd rather have concentrated on trying to win the game outright. (But then, while I would be excited to make the playoffs and get at least one more game in, I also would be OK with having Sunday off.) As we took to the ice, somebody noted that the other team had two penalty minutes going into this game, and we had six. Another reason we should just concentrate on winning, I thought.

During the final period of Game 2, we'd scrambled the lines a bit to see if we could generate any offense, but it hadn't worked. The lines from Game 1 seemed to be the best we could arrange. We did keep one change going into Game 3, though: Sarah moved from D to Center, and Deb moved back to take Sarah's spot. Felicia and Marlene and I stayed together as the other forward line. I'd mentioned to Felicia before the game that Al had noticed that sometimes both of us went for the puck at the same time, and my plan in this game would be to let her have it, and to just get open for the pass. I was able to do that most of the time, though some of the photos still show us too close together (usually my fault).

The Ravens scored first, in the first period. I believe we answered with a goal of our own early in the second period (I can't remember who actually put the puck in the net; maybe Amber?), making the score tied at 1-1. Not long after that, I ended up following the lead skater behind the net as she tried to either go for a wraparound or kill time until her teammates could get set up in the slot. I managed to muck her up a little—enough that a wraparound shot was now impossible—but as I came around the far side of the net, I noticed that there were now two other Ravens in front on that side. The girl I was on passed out toward them, and Ling came out of the net to face them. Rather than charge into the scrum and potentially make things worse for Ling, who had to sort out among the three Ravens and our 2 D (plus any Wingers who might be coming down to help out) where a puck might be coming from, I skated behind her into the crease and covered the gap between her left arm and her body.

This turned out to be a good thing, as that's exactly where the shot went a second or so later. Someone then crashed into Ling, who fell back onto my leg; I don't think she'd realized I was there, and at first I was worried that I might have hurt her, not to mention kept her from covering the puck properly. There was an immediate whistle anyway, though; apparently not only was Ling fine and the puck OK where it was, but we were also going on the power play. The girl who got called for holding Jocelyn's stick was none too happy about it ("Are you fucking kidding me?" she yelled at the ref, to Michele's delight; I heard M, who happened to be on the ice with me and Felicia that shift, mutter, "two extra minutes for unsportsmanlike would be fine with us!") She just got the two minutes for the hold, though.

I believe this was the first of three penalties taken by the Ravens in the second period (it might have been the second penalty; I'm not sure). In any case, it put their PIM total for the tournament at 8. They now had more penalty minutes than we did. Sadly, that distinction did not last long. It was near the end of the second period, I believe, that I got called for tripping. :( I had picked up the person in the slot and was trying to stick to her when our strides got out of sync, and I accidentally poked her skate with my stick. She went down hard, I leaned down and said, "oops, sorry about that," and the ref blew the whistle. "5 Teal, tripping!" I couldn't dispute the call, so I headed to the box. I know I should look mad or at least guilty there in the box, but when I noticed Al with the camera pointed at me, I couldn't help smiling ruefully. I knew we could beat this team, and the penalty wasn't completely stupid (I didn't get in a fight or whack someone in the head with my stick or retaliate for all the pushing and shoving and grabbing), so I didn't think the fact that we were now tied in penalty minutes would even come into play.

Somewhere in the middle of the game, Marlene suggested that on the faceoff, I should try to whack the other Center's stick as soon as the puck was dropped. That way, she'd have no chance at the puck, and I could win it back cleanly. Now, I'm no good at winning the puck backwards in the first place (the best I can do is win it to the side), but I said I would certainly give it a try. Meanwhile, Ling had been telling us Centers since game 1 that we needed to tie up our man. I'd done that in the second game on a faceoff in our end, leaving the puck free for one of the D or Wingers to come in and pick it up, but instead everyone just stood around and watched us tangle. Meanwhile, as Spitfire attention was directed toward the scuffle on the dot, one of their Wingers slid backwards til she was open in front of the net. Eventually the puck was kicked free, one of the Hornets passed it to the open Winger, and she scored. Not very encouraging.

Anyway, I tried Marlene's suggestion, and I quickly found that I was strong enough to whack the other Center's stick, but not strong enough to also win the faceoff back. At the next rest between shifts, I told Marlene this, and outlined my strategy: I would whack the stick and then step in. Marlene said no problem, either she or Felicia would pick up the puck. With everyone on the line now on the same page, the play worked much better against the Ravens than it did against the Hornets. While we weren't able to score again, we *were* able to frustrate and confuse their Centers (and often entire lines). You can see this in the photo at right, where I've got the Center tied up, and Felicia is moving in from the Right Wing to pick up the puck. Shortly after, I disengaged from the Center and got open in the slot for the pass. I love it when a play comes together. :)

Unfortunately, by not being able to capitalize on some good plays (and by not setting up properly on a few others—see left), the game ended in a 1-1 tie. That meant that all the tie-breakers we'd fretted about before the game and between periods would now come into play. We were obviously tied in both points (3) and wins (1); because of their three penalties and my one during this game, we were tied in penalty minutes (8); at first it looked like they were ahead in goals for (5 to our 4), but we learned that there was a mistake on the official scoring sheet, and we were also tied in that category. That meant that it came down to goals against, and that's where our 6-0 loss in the second game came back to bite us. I think the Ravens only had 4 or 5 goals against them to our 8. They moved on to the playoffs, and we did not.

After the game we went up to the lounge for beer and nachos; I spotted the little girl in the photo at right and snapped a couple photos of her playing with her dolls. She's wearing a hockey jersey. :) After scarfing down most of the nachos and listening for our ticket numbers to be called in the door-prize raffle (we didn't win anything), Al and I headed back to the hotel. Apparently we missed out on some serious streaking by cutting out early: we heard from Marlene the next day that shortly after we left one of the coaches from the another team was seen skating around the rink naked. He was pursued by one of his team's players in full gear; she was trying to knock him down. (Personally, I wouldn't want to fall on the ice without pads on, much less without clothes. And god forbid any part of his body was wet, and it adhered to the ice.... <shudder>) After this display, a few die-hards from our team moved on to Tim Horton's, where two insane Candians decided to try to impress the donut-eating crowd with their god-given wares. They started by pressing their bums to the storefront glass, and then they came inside for a loop around the establishment. I understand that the goods on display were none too impressive, but the two nuts (or rather, the two loons *with* the nuts) won points for shock value.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, I was feeling fairly sore; though I'd have loved to play another game or two on Sunday, I wasn't exactly sorry to have a day off, either. I was amazed that I came away from the tournament with no serious injuries—just one small, rectangular bruise (probably from a stick) just above my left elbow—and some sore muscles. Really sore, actually, but in a good way. Made me feel like I'd actually *skated*. Al did say that despite the penalty and the fact that we didn't win, that last game was the best one he'd ever seen me play. That's something to be proud of, if I do say so myself.

Posted by Lori in Vancouver Tournament 2003 | May 28, 2003·09:48 AM