Game 2: Flying Beavers

Our first game of the day was at 2pm against the Flying Beavers, who lost their first game to the Cross Chix (our 8:15pm opponent). Al and Austen were able to make it to this game, unlike last night's, which was past Austen's bedtime.

The two locals, Kelly and Jess, were also able to make it (and to play D, thank god), though we got a little nervous when Jess pulled her shirt off and revealed the number 43 written on her shoulder. "Did you run a triathalon recently?" I asked. She looked a bit sheepish. "Uh, yeah. This morning," she replied, adding, "But it was a short one!"

With D covered, I asked to play forward and proposed that we go with 3 centers and 2 sets of wings. Natalie (a center) said she didn't think we needed 3 centers, and couldn't we just have 5 D? Michele said, "Are you volunteering to play D? Because Lori's saying that she wants to play up." She wasn't.

Her next proposal was that I float through all the lines, taking a different position on each shift. This made my hair stand on end; I'd rather play D than switch positions every shift and argue over who was going to sit every 90 seconds... which may have been the goal of the proposal.

Long story short: Rachel, the other center, wanted 3 centers, but as Natalie was very much against it, the rest of the team voted to have me float through one line a period. That sounded like a good plan to me. As we readied to leave the locker room, Natalie announced, "Let's all remember what we learned last night: The boards are really springy, and Ds, don't pinch in." I muttered to Michele, "Oh, is that what we learned?"

During the warmup Al brought Austen down to the bench so he could see me; he looked at my face cage blankly until I said, "Hey Austen, it's mommy!", and then he lit up with smiles. :) Jess took a family photo of us, and then I took the ice. My blisters were still very sore, but a thick layer of moleskin helped protect them a bit.

The actual game went pretty well. I liked being the third line much better than being the third D, and since I usually play forward, I got a good sense of my current skill level. (Al observed that for the most part, it hadn't dropped off that much—and not at all when I was at left wing, my favorite spot.)

The Flying Beavers were much more our level than the Lunachix, though we were also more equipped to compete thanks to Kelly and Jess. It was obvious from the get-go that they were several levels above us skillwise, but they used that skill to make *us* better rather than stealing the show themselves. Whereas there was virtually no passing in the first game (just lots of dumping), Jess and Kelly passed all the time. (In fact, they never took a shot—instead, they waited for one of us to get open so *we* could shoot. I got no less than 3 shots on goal this way.) They were also brilliant at keeping the puck in the offensive zone and were not afraid of any stinking blueline. :)

I was a little disappointed in myself for not skating with the puck enough, so when it popped out to me at left wing toward the end of the game, I thought, "now's my chance for a breakaway, and I'm going to take it!" I managed to get a shot off, but I think it went wide.

my chance to skate it into the zone

In the end, we won 3-0 thanks to a hat trick by Donna, great passing by Kelly and Jess, and strong play by the rest of us. Donna got the MVP Starbucks card again but gave it to Rocky (in a nod as much to Friday night's performance as to this afternoon's shutout, kinda like how the Oscars often work).

story of the game: me overskating the puck

Posted by Lori in Vancouver Tournament 2005 | May 28, 2005·07:21 PM