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Leslie & Kristine ham it up in the locker room
Trevor and Roger give us advice before the game.
Twin sisters Karen and Lisa
Alexis, our goalie
me, skating with the puck. someday I hope to be able to look up while doing it.
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26 May 2001 I think the Herricaines got even less sleep, though, because I could hear them carousing in the hall before I turned out the light. I found out later that three of their players were actively puking before the game, and the rest were just nursing hangovers. As two of them noted, though (in perfect unison), "we play better when we're hung over." They weren't kidding. We played a much better game than last night, but we still lost 3-0. They were definitely faster and tighter than the Spiders. The good news for us is that we started forechecking, passing, and talking more. We also had to skate faster to keep up. Alexis, the goalie we recruited from Vancouver to play on our team, gave us some analysis on speed in the locker room that seemed to help: she'd noticed that we were all talking about how fast the ice was compared to the rinks in Redwood City and Belmont, and that we were having trouble keeping the puck on our sticks. "Up here, the girls are used to better ice than this -- which means that they're used to booking down the ice just to catch the puck. If you want to beat them, it's going to take more than an extra step. They're coming on hard behind you." We switched our defensive lines for our game against the Herricaines; I played with Ellen, and Leslie played with Kristine. That seemed to work better, as Leslie and Kristine have good chemistry together, and Ellen is good enough to cover for me if I screw up. I screwed up a lot less in the morning game than I did last night, though. I occasionally got stuck trying to cover two players who kept passing back and forth to each other—kinda like a rundown in baseball, with me in the middle—but I covered people and cleared the puck and got back when I needed to. I didn't get much of a chance to stay at the point when we were in our offensive zone because they were so fast at breaking out, but in our defensive zone I did OK. I don't know if Ellen made it her mission to boost my morale or whether she's just naturally cheerful (I suspect both), but it was a joy to play with her. I wish I played at her level—she started in 1976, played for Wesleyan's women's hockey team, and is now in the Blue Division in the NCWHL—so I could play with her on a regular basis. She makes D fun. Around noon Christina and I headed back to the hotel to hang up our gear, and then we went up to the Lonsdale exit off Hwy. 1 to get my skates sharpened at Larry's Sports and eat lunch. When I dropped off the skates, it didn't occur to me to ask for a certain hollow. I think they give me 1/2" at East West, and I think Al has started using 3/8", but I don't really know for sure. I just said I needed a sharpening, and they said I could come back at 2pm to pick up the skates. We ate sushi at the place next door, bought moleskin and chocolate at the London Drugs across the street (moleskin because my slightly-too-narrow skates are starting to mess up my toes, and the chocolate because I'm a sugar freak, and I love trying candy from other countries), bought a couple apples at the organic market, and picked up the skates. We made it back to the hotel around 2:30—leaving just enough time for an hourlong nap. I conked out right away, and was sound asleep when my watch alarm went off at 3:30. I was incredibly slow and stupid when I got up, literally dragging my feet as I stumbed around the room trying to collect my gear. (Instead of hanging it up in the closet as I had the night before, I'd placed it strategically around the room to take best advantage of the Fan Only setting on the A/C unit and the sunbeams coming in the windows.) I was still stuffing items into my bag when Christina knocked on my door at 3:40 to see if I was ready. I finally got my act together, and we headed for the rink. We'd learned that it paid to start getting dressed early, since it gave us time to discuss strategy and the opportunity to get out on the ice as soon as the Zamboni was done. It was 4:04 when I realized I'd forgotten the magic socks—the Ottawa '67s ones that we'd all gotten to wear as a team uniform because we didn't get team jerseys. I remembered thinking as I hung them over a chair, "I wonder if I'll forget these if I put them here..." Well, now I knew the answer to that question. Damn! I figured that I didn't really have time to run back to the hotel, so Karen lent me her Devils socks. (It turned out that this was the game that the ditigal imaging company would be photographing for us, so the unique socks made it easier to determine which action photos I was in; kinda small consolation, though. I stood in the back row for the team photo not just because I'm tall, but also so my oddball socks wouldn't stand out.) |
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The minute I stepped out on the ice for the photo, I realized my skates were too sharp. I'm used to skidding on the flat part of the blade when I want to spin in place, make a quick turn, or stop gradually. Now there *was* no flat part of the blade. I practiced skating around, turning, and stopping during the warm-up, but I actually started to worry that I might break an ankle if I cought an edge. As it turned out, the only damage I did to myself on account of the edges was a bruise to the hip when I fell trying to stop at the blue line on the first shift. I slid all the way to the faceoff circle, fell again when I tried to get up, and then got my footing for good. I never quite got used to the edges, but I managed to adjust my skating a little to compensate for them. The game was against a team called Wasabi, and as we had guessed, their jerseys were green. They also mimicked the Budweiser "whazzup" commercial when they did their team cheer, which was very cute.
It was clear from the first shift that we were faster than the Wasabi girls, and that we wouldn't have too much trouble getting into—and staying in—the offensive zone. Roger and Trevor, our coaches, had told us in the locker room that they wanted the D to play more agressively at the blue line, and to concentrate on keeping the puck in rather than getting back. This was much easier to do against Wasabi than against the Herricaines. They'd also told us that the'd give out a Loonie for each assist, a Toonie for each goal, and a pitcher of beer for a Hat Trick. (I had to ask what Loonies and Toonies were; turns out they're $1 and $2 coins, respectively.) Lisa and Karen earned the first Loonie and Toonie by working together to set up a goal. (Man, what a thrill it would be to play on the same line with my sister! I'm hoping to talk her into trying ice hockey eventually.) I forget who got the second one, but after that one of the Wasabis managed to knock the puck in after having it cross in front of the crease several times. They really shouldn't have had the chance, but it made the player who got the goal really happy, and it made the Wasabi's feel like they were in it. The score was 2-1. I can't remember if Karen scored the second or the third goal, but when she did, I turned to Roger and said, "get out your beer money. She's going to have a Hat Trick." We were really starting to click. I was having a ball manning the blue line (except for the time I fell), and I kept the Wasabis from clearing out several times. I also managed to dash in and poke the puck away from a few of them. Ellen was even able to skate in and get a few shots off. When we had to get back it wasn't too much trouble because only a couple girls were faster than I was. I think it was late in the second period or early in the third when my prediction to Roger came true: Karen scored her third goal of the evening. It was sooooo cool to see her finally get some real chances; you could just tell that she had a bunch of pent up talent that wasn't getting a chance to break out in the first two games because *we* couldn't break out. Kristine also had an awesome game (and an assist), Barbara scored a goal, and a couple others had assists as well. There were no penalties (which was a good thing, since we hadn't worked out how much we'd *owe* if we got any)... or rather, there weren't any penalties called. Ellen was tripped at least once, I got shoulder checked on the boards, and there were a few other examples of chippy play, but that was probably more from frustration on the Wasabis' part rather than real unsportsmanship. Overall, they were a fun team to play. In the end, Trevor and Roger had to dig deep in their pockets for Loonies and Toonies (and beer money), and Ellen got the MVP award (I was glad they recognized her all-around good play on D and not just all the goals by the forwards). The win put us in second place in the Boston Pizza division, behind Team Abbey (the team Barbara Sorakubo from my Thursday Ice Oasis team plays on). That means our next game is at 12:45pm tomorrow, and if we win that one, we play again at 4:45 for the Pool B championship. |
me lifting the stick of an opponent
trying to get the puck back to my teammates before the Wasabi closed in
Christina with the puck
Back Row: Christina Maynard, Lori Hylan, Michele Ryan, Barbara Plante, Joan Rosen, Trevor Bechtel.
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