After a couple weeks of losing hockey it was good to be in a winning place last night. The Tigers dominated the Rockets and won 6-0. Making it an even better night was that I picked up a goal and an assist, and played some pretty good D along the way too.
The goal was very nice. I was playing conservative D between the red and blue lines, but I saw the puck whipping around the board and zoomed up to catch it at the blue line. I steadied it and shot a strong, ice-level wrist shot. A Rockets D tried to stop it and ended up tipping it in (oops for them, but good for me).
The assist was good too. Since my D partner was already in the neutral zone, I pinched up on one of the Rockets trying to clear the zone. I poked checked the puck off their stick, sending it over to Scott who put it away.
My D overall was good last night. I’m trying to maintain the gap control thing that Tommy’s working with me on during Ronnie’s. Gap control is easier in D8 since I don’t have too many issues with speed there. Stepping up worked good last night too to either get the opposition to make bad passes or to just take the puck off of them. I had one move I really liked last night, going into the corner with one of the Rockets, I managed to turn in a way so that I got myself between him. I did it in such a way that my hands were free so I could clear the boards while he couldn’t get to the puck at all. I need to try and do that more often in the corners.
Ronnie’s was good in the morning. Even though I slept very badly Friday night, I had good energy. Laurie and I paired up for a couple of the drills, which was great. I worked on that gap control. And the scrimmage was good. Roman was down on the first line, so I got to play against him and that was fun. Even running at half energy, he’s still so good and it makes me have to step up and be better. That’s important with just two weeks to go before the Chelsea Challenge and trying to keep up for the Whalers.
