We lost 5-3.
Lets recap.
Our team had 15 players, yes, 15. We rolled 3 full forward lines and 5 defensemen (I played D). The other team started with 7 skaters, but ended up with 9 by the end of the first period. We were playing the Knights, the same team we played two weeks back, and beat 3-2. I'd say we were fairly evenly matched, with them having the edge by having more skilled players than our team, mainly the forwards. Speaking of forwards, ours were held scoreless, and our D scored all three goals, including me, who scored the first one. I had brought the puck up the ice from deep in our zone and pretty much went North/South, with a dodge and a dangle, then got a shot off towards the far post. The rebound got deflected out to the point, in which my D partner let a clapper fly. I was at the top of the crease for a screen and possible redirect. The shot made it through, hit the goalies leg pad, veered off to the left almost right on to my stick, with a quick flick of the wrist, I lifted it up and over his left leg pad and lit the lamp. This tied up the game at 1-1.
The game pretty much went back and forth, they were up 1-0, then we tied, then they went up 2-1, then we would tie, then we were up 3-2, then they would tie, and eventually take the lead. In the second period a shot came from up high, between the top of the circle and the blue line, I had their forwards stick tied up (lifted with mine underneath it) and the shot went off my right skate and in for the game-tying goal, 3-3.
The third period was all them, they scored two more to nail the coffin shut. Our forwards could not manage to hold the puck in the O'zone for more than 10 seconds on end, it was very frustrating, especially since we should have been out skating them left and right. Another annoying thing was that it was rare for a forward to cover the point if the D went coast to coast. This bit me in the ass for the first goal of the game. It is a catch 22 because it is almost pointless to carry the puck up from deep in our zone and then stop once I cross the blue line and just dump it in and turn it over, or do I carrying it all the way in and hope and pray someone covers the point??!?! We got burned a couple times by carrying the puck in, but the forwards weren't producing, so we kept activating our D. I had maybe 5 or 6 end to end rushes, most resulted in a SOG, but my last one late in the third was very close to tickling the twice. By that point in the game I was in the groove, feeling it, everything was clicking, I made a couple toe drag dangles as I crossed the red line, then blue line and was coming in on my backhand (I'm a lefty) along the right side. An opponent was coming across so I had to get a shot off quick, I didn't have the space to try to deke the goalie so I got a quick backhand shot off and there was a rebound, in which I stuffed right back into the 5-hole area (goalie was down) and he ended up smothering it.
#sigh
It was a fun game, now that I have two games under my belt with the team I can see where the holes are. Our goalie is older (late 40's/early 50's?) and plays waaaaaay too deep in the crease, and to compound on that, he doesn't drop. He got beat from the blue line on what was a routine save in my opinion, as the guy wound up, I made sure to back up so he had a clear view of the shot....tweeners. Again, his heels were basically on the goal line...ugh. We have one "that guy" on the team, whom won't STFU and thinks he is God's gift to the team, and is always clashing with the Captain, I'm honestly not sure why he hasn't been booted yet.
Now I am really debating on getting those new skates, I've just about had it with my Grafs. Maybe this weekend I'll head out to HG or HM and revisit the CCM Jetspeeds and bring my Grafs with me so I can compare the stiffness side by side.
