Game 3: Vixens

Four hours and 15 minutes between game starts sounds like a lot of time, but it isn't. I'd been thinking that I'd have time to go back to the hotel and rest between games, but all I really had time for was a veggie burger and fries in the lounge above the rink before I had to get dressed for our game against the Vixens at 9:30. I could totally feel the effects of the last game—whereas I'd been on fire in game 2, in game 3 I was just burned out. I still think I did lots of good things; it's just that my legs were burning so much that occasionally they didn't respond to commands like "SKATE!", and I know at one point late in the third period I stayed camped out on the back door of the crease much longer than I should have because I just couldn't move.

Aside from being tired, we played a pretty good game; the only thing I really noticed that I wish we'd done better was getting control of the puck. Both teams were pretty chippy: them with their hits and their mouths, and us with our sticks. It seemed like we were always chipping it out, chipping it forward, chipping it past the D... only to put it right back on an opponent's stick (I know I did this many, many times myself). We didn't control the puck in this game as much as we did in the last. On the bright side, by the third period we seemed to have their number, and we intercepted as many—or more—of their passes as they did of ours.

spitfires bench first faceoff, game 3 first faceoff, game 3 looking for a passing target double-teamed holding the boards everybody down low still scrummin' watching the fight along the boards

The Vixens were definitely a better team than the Cross Chix, but I think if we'd played them in the first game on Saturday, when we were fresher, instead of in the second, we could have beaten them. (But then would we have beaten the Cross Chix in the second game? Hard to say, but I think we would have.) They were bigger and faster, for two things, and they didn't back up like the Chix had. I'm also not sure we were using all our assets as well as we could have. It turned out that Marie is amazing at winning faceoffs (something that we didn't realize until this morning), so we probably should have had her playing Center—or at least taking faceoffs—in this game, as she did in the previous two.

Speaking of faceoffs, in the middle of the first period, something I hadn't even noticed became obvious to Lolly: namely, that two of the Vixens' three Centers could win the faceoff back every time. When she came back from one of her D shifts she begged some paper and a pen from the scorekeeper and dashed off a tiny little diagram that boiled down to this:

Lolly's faceoff strategy
A plan for getting the puck out of the defensive zone
when it's very likely that the opposing Center will win the faceoff.

The plan involved having the Left Wing straddle the circle on the RIGHT, with the Right D and the Right Wing to her right, and the idea behind it was to get the Left Wing to her check (the Right D) without being impeded by the opposing Right Wing. It works like this: The second the puck is dropped, the Left Wing skates straight to the Right D. If the opposing Center wins the faceoff back to the Left D, the Left Wing will intercept the puck and can either carry it or chip it out of the zone. If the opposing Center wins the faceoff back to the Right D, the Left Wing is there to clog the shooting lane. If the opposing Center wins the faceoff forward or if our Center wins it back, our Left D wings the puck around the boards to the right, where the Right Wing goes to pick it up. (Obviously the whole diagram reverses if the faceoff is to the right of the goalie.)

I was a little nervous about executing this plan properly, but I got a chance to try it on my first shift out after Lolly's explanation. And gosh darn it if it didn't work! The Center won the faceoff back to the Left D, and I intercepted the pass cleanly. I think if I'd had fresher legs, I could have broken through and skated it out myself, but with both D converging on me, my first instict was to pop it up and over to another winger. I'd gotten a jump on everyone, however, so there was no one to pass up to. We did eventually get the puck out of the zone, and we tried this play two more times that I was on the ice, with great success. I wonder if I can convince my Admirals teammates to try it? I think it'd be something worth trying in one of the games against the beginner team, which actually has a strong Center.

Anyway, between Lolly's coaching and our perserverence, we kept the game very close; in fact, the score was tied at 1-1 for most of the game. Sadly, in the end we lost 2-1. I was so exhausted after the game that when the inevitable funny stories started flying around the locker room, I laughed until I was on the verge of tears. (That's happened to me before: when I'm wiped-out tired, if something hilarious happens, chances are I'll be sobbing in seconds.) The two things that nearly sent me over the edge? (1) A story about a game that got so ugly the Spitfires ended up walking off the ice, after which the opposing players all banged their sticks on the Spitfires' locker room door, yelling, "yeah, we'll see you at the potluck!" I gotta use that one sometime. (2) Beth tossing her skate towel to J-W just as Michele walked out of the bathroom. There's nothing like someone getting beaned in the head with a towel for high hilarity.

Posted by Lori in Vancouver Tournament 2006 | May 28, 2006·11:36 PM