Today was a mixed hockey day. We started out with a good scrimmage against the Albany Gay Hockey association. They are pretty new and came up just to play some exhibitions rather than going into competition. They gave us a good game, but we definitely dominated 10-0 and we used it to further solidify our lines. It definitely felt good coming together as a team even more.
Unfortunately, our fortunes turned in the afternoon in our first competition game. Vancouver took us out 6-0.
There are several bits of good news here though. Because of the point system being used (each period is worth 2 points, winner gets 2, if you tie its 1 each, if you loose it’s 0… and same sort of thing for winning/tying a game…so there are 8 points per game) we got 1 point and that gives us second place in our pool because Vancouver destroyed Colorado yesterday leaving Colorado no points. Tomorrow we take on Colorado and the goal here is to solidify our second place standing as the classification rounds end tomorrow. We definitely play on Wednesday, but winning tomorrow will help us to get through into medal rounds.
The other good stuff here was that the team played well. Playing Vancouver felt like playing a D6 team form Sky Rink. It was tough, but we made them work for it and we did manage to tie up that second period.
Most of all, at least for me, I had a blast even though we lost because we worked hard and played well together and I felt like I had a solid game personally.
A very cool thing they have at these games is they’re announced. So when goals are scored, it’s announced over the sound system. It was awesome hearing teammates names called out during the exhibition game with Albany. It gave me goosebumps the first time it happened. I hope to hear my name before this tourney ends!
Tomorrow it’s Colorado at 4:20!
We did some other stuff besides hockey today. We went over to the Olympic pool and watched some synchronized swimming, which was great to watch. There was a first here as well, the first male team ever in competition (apparently the world governing body for synchronized swimming, doesn’t allow men, but the Outgames does). They weren’t great, but bravo for them for being there! Hopefully they’ll keep coming back. They got a huge ovation from the audience. Congrats to them for being first!
