The Ordinals won their first game of 2007 with a 3-2 overtime shootout victory against Hockey Hegemony. The Ordinals played a very solid game; it was great to see everyone come back from the two week holiday break ready to play some good hockey. We did have a few slip ups in terms of playing positional hockey, but we overcame those quickly. Hegemony certainly could have overwhelmed us if we had slipped up for very long. They are a fast, aggressive team and thankfully we were ready for them. In particular goalie John played a great game. I was happy to see him looking confident and blocking so many shots. In particular, he shined during the shootout blocking eight of nine Hegemony shots. We shot second in the shootout, and Michael went first for us and nailed the goal. Hegemony’s second shooter also scored, and then it was back and forth until Neill scored the game winner as our ninth person to shoot. The game was a fun, high energy one for me, with a lot of skating to keep up with Hegemony’s speedy players. I did get knocked on my ass in the second period and that hurt, and still does today, but it seems to be nothing too serious. I felt like I played a decent game last night, not my best, but certainly not my worst either.
Earlier last night, the Tigers squared off against the Rampaging Moose. We did get out of the pattern of being shut out, which was the case during the past four games. We actually lead the game 1-0 for a long time in the first period, and even held 1-1 for quite some time too. However, the Moose turned it on and by midway through the 3rd it was 1-6 with the Moose picking up a couple of those points short-handed. Bob called a time out and gave a stern talking to the team and that helped, we picked up one more goal and didn’t give them anymore. The goals we did make were great. Laurie picked up one that was a text book example of good team play and being in just the right place. Daniel got the second one and it was good to see him pick up another point for his stats. This was a fun game to play even though it was another loss. I got to make a few rushes up the ice with the puck that resulted in some near-goals (in particular one that was just the smallest bit wide). Plus, on the rushes there were people with me, which was great. Daniel in particular was with me on a couple rushes and he makes his presence well known, which I love!
I also had my NYCGHA recruitment director hat on last night, meeting up with Chris. He has just started hockey prep at a rink out on Long Island and wants to join an NYCGHA team in the spring. He checked out the Tigers game, and then went out with some of the Tigers afterwards and then watched the Ordinals game as well. It was great to meet him in person since we’ve been communicating via email and IM. Speaking of people I saw last night, Matt, who hasn’t played much lately because he’s in med school, came down to watch the game last night too and it was awesome to see him!
