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Picture of the C-level Walpole Tournament champion HOTSHOTS:

Photos from the Black Ice’s recent trip to the Have a Heart Tournament (alas, no game shots): All photos

Lynn, our goalie

The 2008 Have a Heart Tournament was this weekend in Fitchburg MA, and the Black Ice played in it. We had a few subs - Liza, who’s on our roster, but only plays a few tournaments with us each year, Theresa, who’s on a C-level team in our league, and Ann, who’s played for all of one summer and is wicked good.

Game 1 was against the Eagles, a team which is in our regular league. They brought part of their D team (the one we play against) and part of their C team (the team a level up from us). We knew the game would be a tough one, but they weren’t expecting us to bring our best game. Then when Libby put two quick pucks in their net, they realized they had to buckle down and actually play us, rather than simply coasting by.

We put in two more goals, but the refs only counted one of them even though we’ve got video evidence that the other went in. We ended up losing 3-4, so that other goal really would have made a difference for us. Alas, the goal that wasn’t counted didn’t even approach being the worst thing that happened in the game. In the third period, WES tangled with one of the Eagles and they ended up going into the boards. I’ve seen her hit the boards a lot harder than she did right then, but I’ve never seen her ankle bend the way it bent on Friday. Her boyfriend was there (thank goodness) and got her to an ER. The report the next morning is a probable fracture, which stinks on a whole lot of levels. One - she was having a really good season. Two - she was having a great game. And three - our team plays better when she’s there. We’ll find out Tuesday what the definitive diagnosis is, and then we’ll hope that she heals quickly and that rehab is fast and straightforward.

We played game 2 against the non-stacked NEWHL team (yeah, they said right out loud that they stacked one of the two teams they entered into the tournament, which is just weird and kind of crappy if you ask me, but then there’s a reason I don’t skate with them and only part of it is because they practice Wednesday and Friday mornings when most of the world is at work. ANYHOO I’ll stop being bitchy now.) It was a fun game; we totally dominated them and ended up with the win, 2-1. They scored first on a horrible bobble by me, Ann, Libby, and Lynn. Argh! Of course, we tied it up when Theresa dumped the puck into their zone and it just happened to dump on the net, and the goalie just happened to take her concentration off of it for a second. Yeah, she scored from the red line! Good fun! Our second goal was my Amy - I popped the puck out of the zone up the left boards to Tracey Lee. A couple of NEWHL players swarmed around her, but she’s good on the boards and BOINK got it off the boards to Amy. She took it into our offensive zone, deked around their defenders, and got her shot off. It went in and we all celebrated! Wooooo!

Game three was this morning against last year’s tournament champions, the Great Bay Riptide from coastal NH. A bunch of them were out last night but unfortunately weren’t as hung over as we’d have liked them to be. Oh well. A few observations on the game:

1. It was a LOT more physical than the other two games. Amy kept getting mugged in our offensive end. I may or may not have gotten annoyed by that and started getting more physical in our defensive zone. I’ll never say.
2. The refs sucked. Flat out they were bad. One of them was watching the blue line right by our bench and I watched him actively NOT watching the game. As in he was staring off into space, over at their bench, and not at the game. That said, they ended up calling at least 4 penalties on us. They called Amy for interference when she went for the puck, got the puck, turned around, and ran into one of their players who fell down.
3. Their four goals were more than our two (only one of which was counted because the refs [see commentary in item 2] didn’t see one of them go into the net and bounce out.) Their first goal came on a crappy defensive line change. Yeah, I’m a defender and was involved. Grump. Then they had two really sweet shots that went upstairs on our goalie, and there wasn’t much she could do about either one. One of those went past Theresa, and one went past me. I managed to get myself in front of 3 other shots though - shin, crotch, and skates. I also grabbed a puck that was lying in the crease next to Lynn and sent it flying out of the zone, but DIDN’T ice it! In the final period, though, the same sort of thing happened only no one in a white jersey could get the puck out of the crease before a blue jersey-ed girl poked it in.
4. Loss notwithstanding, I think we played well. Lynn made a ton of saves and we started shooting in the third period. And Pammie got a sweet breakaway and put a beautiful shot in the net that did get counted, so their goalie didn’t get a shutout.

Overall, the tournament was fun. I really enjoyed playing with our subs, and having Ann as my defensive linemate was a blast. I can’t believe she’s only played the game for one summer because she’s so good. Natural athletes amaze me, and she’s definitely one of those.

No practice this week, and then we’re on vacation for our next league game against the Raging Storm (ARGH - of all the games to miss, that one stings the most!) so it’s going to be a while until I see my Black Ice girls again. Boo hiss… Then we’ve only got three more games and three more practices until the regular season is done! Fortunately we’ve got at least two more tournaments lined up as a team once the season is over.

Did you think I stopped playing hockey since I haven’t blogged about it (or anything else) in a few weeks? Fortunately that wasn’t the case. I just wasn’t inspired to put fingers to keyboard until today.

We played Trinity a few weeks ago. Five of them were half our tournament team from the Walpole tournament, so it was a fun game. I always like to play them. Except. There is one woman on the team who I really like but she scares me on the ice (a bit out of control, plays gaelic football for fun, etc. etc.) So during the course of the game (which we lost - boo) I was trying to be really solid on my skates whenever she came near me. At the end of the first period, it meant that she skated right into me - both of us going full-tilt, her with the puck - and she ended up on the ice in a pile. I took the puck and skated away. Some may have called it a body check, but the ref didn’t. (I’ve never tried to throw a body check before, so I’m not sure if it was or not. Regardless, it was a BIG hit.) In the second period, a similar thing may or may not have happened down on the boards as she was driving the puck into the zone. Again, she ended up the worse for it, and I took the puck and skated away. Little did I know that my come-uppance was going to come up in the third period when we were still not-losing. We were in front of my goalie, the girl was out there with her center and as happens in women’s hockey at this level, there was a bit of a scrum in front of the net as they tried (successfully) to put the puck in the net. I think it was the center who ended up taking my skates out from under me and not the girl I’d hit, but man did I go down HARD. Landed first on my butt, then the back of my helmet hit. I was a bit dazed and stayed down for a minute. Then I got up and skated off the ice. Decided not to go back in for the rest of the game in case anything was broken (it wasn’t - no concussion, no pain, and only some aches and pains for a day or so afterwards.) Still, thank goodness I had in my mouth guard, otherwise I’d have knocked myself silly! And yeah, they scored during that whole ruckus, and I’m still ticked off and we lost.

This weekend saw Amy and I playing in two games - one for the NH Panthers and one for our regular team. The game with the Panthers was a lot of fun even if it was slow. We played their arch-rivals, the NH Lady Monarchs. The game was north of Manchester, about 90 minutes from our place, and we got to drive up in what ended up being a pretty miserable but not-too-scary snowstorm. Libby, Blue-Line Nancy, Amy, Liza, and I were there from the Black Ice (I think they might need to rename themselves from the Panthers to something else. Probably not the Black Panthers though. Just saying.) The best thing about the game for me was watching our goalie stand on her head making save after save after save. She made a save on a shot from the right point that ricocheted off my skate right at the net - it was beautiful (and scary for me, since defenders HATE scoring on their own goalies). There was also a great save she made on a fast-break. As I should have, I gave her the shooter and picked up the trailer. The shot came in on her right side and damn but she made a kick-save that was incredible! The rebound was juicy and the second trailer shot it high in the net. I have no idea how she managed to stop that one, but she did. In the third period she had a another amazing save on another fast break (yes, there was a theme to the game - our defense was a little shaky that night). The girl drove down the lane and I could see the goalie getting low in case the shot went low. But she didn’t go down on her knees; rather, she hovered and when the shot was actually high it was wicked awesome to see her knock it over the net with her right elbow. Fun times! We ended up in a 1-1 tie with them when all was said and done.

Last night we played the Nighthawks. The high points: I got an assist on one of our two goals (I took a shot on net and Marcia picked up the juicy juicy rebound and put it in)! I got off a lot of nice shots on net! I kept the puck in the zone a few times during offensive line changes! Amy/Libby/Holly’s line got a nice goal! The low points: Their first goal happened on a wrister that went through my legs about knee-high. We’re too nice and didn’t trip/hook/impede the girl on the fast-break when she ended up getting their second goal. We tied a team we should have beat, 2-2.

So that’s the quick hockey update. Other than hockey, life’s going well. Saw some great friends in Maine Superbowl weekend. Watched in anguish as the Patriots were replaced by the Little Sisters of the Poor during the Superbowl. Read a lot of good books. Found some new (to me) music and downloaded it for iPod listening. Am going to eat dinner right now.