ahh, what a great feeling this wonderful monday morning. last nite we played the "second best team in the league" and controlled the pace of the game almost entirely (almost), and beat them. not only did we beat them, we sent a message to the roof daddies that we can compete with the best.
i wont get ahead of myself here, this was a close game for the first two periods, only in the 3rd did we really show what we can do. scoreless until 10 left in the 3rd, we played hard and we able to keep them out of our zone for most of the time and get shots on their net. the downside is that their goalie was wearing pads that are MASSIVE! and when i say that i mean he looked like he had bought pads that were 2 sizes too big (he probably did), and was able to cover a shitload of the net. the downside with having pads that are way too big is that you cant control your rebounds as well and we were able to use that to our advantage and get alot of second chances once we got the initial shot off.
i like the new line combinations for our team. 9 forwards makes 3 complete lines:
1. brawley, brawlett, stabs
2. johnson, hacket, cowin
3. ross, megit, gummsy
the reason why i like these lines is because its a pretty even distribution of speed and skill on each line and from what we've seen in one game, these lines are able to do the job their supposed to do.
the first line is good because we got 3 guys with dangles, 2 of them always know where the other one will be and the third has a booming slapshot and can deke and snipe cheeses when he pleases.
second line is key because its 2 amazing playmakers on a line with one of the hardest working players on our team. hack and johnson form a deadly duo and cowin is a grinder and gives it his all when hes on the floor.
line 3 is key too because me and jason have the fastest player on our team on our line. maybe even the fastest player in the league and that can come as an advantage when we see him streaking up the floor and no one can keep up with him.
OK, back to the game.
first period was relatively slow paced. yea, sure, we got a few good chances but we were still feeling out the bullets to see how they play. they didnt get very many shots or chances on our net, and that proves that our new line combinations were doing their jobs. me, ross and jason were playing well and i dont remember the ball being in our end for more than 10 seconds while we were on the floor.
second period got a little more exciting. hacket had some great chances but their goalie was able to stop each try with his pads. all 3 lines had some good chances but no one could beat the overly padded goalie. i was on with hack and cow at one point and hack gave me a beauty drop pass entering therir zone and i fired it off the goalie and he gave up a big rebound but no one was there to stuff it in the net.
on to the 3rd period. we came out strong and it paid off. first shift for line 1 was good, they kept the pressure on and line 2 was able to capitalize on that by keeping it in their end and johnson sniped a nice goal with 9:50 left and that seemed to pump our team up pretty well. the ensuing faceoff was won by us and went right back down into their end again and cowin rifled a quick shot past their goalie to make it 2-0 with about 9 left in the game. after that we knew we would have to keep up the pressure and keep playing to win and not play not to lose.
the bullets managed to get the game close by scoring a goal on an ugly breakdown in our zone, but their goalie ended their chances of a comeback by making a stupid play down in their end. we iced the ball and the ref was ready to blow his whistle when their goalie ran out to play it and ended up losing it to brawley. all he had to do was pass it to brawlet who was in front with a wide open net and he made it 3-1 with little time left. they pulled their goalie and we werent able to get an empty net goal even though we got about 9 shots from inside their blue line.
overall it was a good game, good win and we need to bring this confidence into next sunday because we're playing the Roof Daddies next week and this will be a tough game. tough, but not impossible.
on a side note, cowin had a great game and got a beauty goal. kells always makes rushes into the offensive zone and it great having a defense player that can do that and actually make plays. i got a bunch of shots but no dice. having ross back is beauty. jason had a great game and made some good plays that created scoring chances, our line is gonna get some goals soon, really soon. beavan needs to shoot every single time he gets the ball. baskie had a relatively easy game, compared to some of the games he's played when we cant do shit except watch him keep us in it.
NEXT UP: ROOF DADDIES. SUNDAY NIGHT, VILLAGE ARENA 8PM
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