As you may or may not know, I play recreational hockey at a local rink here in Denver: Big Bear Ice Area. Last night I played for the Big Bear C-League Championship hockey game at the Pepsi Center. This is the arena where our Colorado Avalanche play! This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and our game started 20-minutes after the Av's finished beating up Calgary.
Our team finished the season at .500 -- we had two losses to the number one team, and two losses to the number two team, plus an additional loss in a close game. In the playoffs, we beat the number one team 7-5 on Sunday night to advance to the finals at the Pepsi Center. We were seated at number 5 in the playoff bracket.
Last night (Monday, Mar. 24th) in front of a sold-out crowd of 30 fans, our team BEAT the number two seed, handing them an 8-to-2 loss! We were up 4-1 at the start of the 3rd period, then scored a short-handed goal at the start of the period, then just opened up on the goalie. It was an incredible rout! I did not score a goal last night, but I had 5 shots-on-goal in the first period alone (I play defense, and get very few shots-on-goals in the games). I had a great breakaway chance, and back-handed the shot thru a defender's legs, but the goalie pad-saved the puck. I did manage to score 2-assists in the game, which always feels great! Especially at the Pepsi Center when my daughter heard my name announced over the speaker system with my assists!
It was a fantastic night, and we celebrated our victory at Old Chicago's! Very, very cool!
Here's some highlight pics of the game for you to enjoy!
Our team is the Fightin' Amish. We were wearing our white jerseys. Although I may look alone, I'm not. The rest of the team is on the attack, and I'm standing at the blue line. But I'm not being lazy. As you can see in the bottom of the shot, there is a "cherry picker" waiting to break out and take advantage of our defense. My job is to stay deep to reduce the odd-man attacks.
I'm the skater at the top of the pack with my stick in the air. This image is critical as it shows how we changed up our defense strategy. What you see is my defender partner taking on the guy with the puck. I'm moving to the boards to cover any loose pucks. And the additional teammate has dropped back to help on our defense, giving us 3-defenders instead of 2. It worked great and we shut them down!
This is my breakaway chance. I beat all 3 of these "Catfish", but I still had one defender to beat. I ended up backhanding my shot thru the defender's legs and shot the puck on goal. Great shot, but the goalie had an amazing save on my shot. Bummer. I still managed 2-assists in the game, though!
This is a great candid shot of me on the bench. We didn't get to sit on the Av's side since we were the "visitors", but the benches were definitely top-notch!
I was so happy that Kathy and Jade could make it to the game! It was a late night for Jade, she fell asleep in the car, but we let her go into school late this morning so she could sleep in. Good times!
This is just a great shot of our team huddling during a period break. I'm standing next to Wick, our goalie.
George, me, and Jason. Rearing to go!
This is a great still shot -- just before the action!
The winners and their smiles!
Post-game congratulatory
A beautiful sight!
That would be US!
Fighting Amish vs. Catfish Final Score: 8-2
C-League Champs! March 24th, 2008
I was very, very elated! Top of the world!
Love the rabbit!
