Friday night I had my second game of the season with my team, The Whalers. Coming off a 6-1 win in our first game, we felt pretty confident for this game. I had just come from a Senators autograph session where I got the chance to meet Pascal Leclaire, and I was pretty charged up to hit the ice. I went through the warm up following my usual routine, fared pretty well against the shots from my team, and started the game feeling good. Then the game slowed down... large.
The other team had a hard time putting any sort of rush together, and my team was really on their game defensively, resulting in a lot of time spent in the other team's zone. I handled a few shots in the first period, but most were either really slow along the ice shots, or way wide of the net. We went into the break up 3-0. That's when the refs decided they didn't like how we were playing. We got a string of penalties in the second period, resulting in multiple 5 on 3s. We killed off the first one completely with only a few shots on net, from pretty far outside, so lots of time to see them. They weren't putting up much traffic in front of the net with all those extra bodies. It wasn't until the second 5 on 3 that they finally sniped a nice shot high glove side that just tucked in under the post. I had tipped it with my glove, but not quite enough. The shot came from around the face off dot on the right side. I was disappointed, but at the same time had to acknowledge it was a very pretty shot.
Only a couple minutes after that, almost the exact same play happened, and this time I got beat blocker side. I maybe should have challenged more (but they had another guy rushing to the other side of the net for the pass) or paid more attention to the shooters hand. This is one aspect I don't find myself watching so much and it burned me as they closed the gap to just one. I was a little nervous at this point because they had closed the gap so quickly, and with several minutes left were really pressing to tie the game. I wasn't called on to do many large saves after that as my team responded with a good effort and wound up getting an empty net goal to suck the life out of them. Another good win that I know I should be happy with, but these low shot count games are really draining on me... I want a chance to really shine and show how much I feel I've improved this past year. I play again tonight with the same team, so hopefully this game will be a little more evenly matched.
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