Storm vs. RI Panthers C

Yesterday afternoon, my hockey team (the Storm) played the RI Panthers. Sadly, we lost 2-3, although the goal that they got at the very last moment of the second period could have gone either way timing-wise. Regardless of the loss, it FELT like a tie!

Things that stood out for me in this game:

1. Playing hockey with a sinus infection is challenging due to the whole “breathing”and “snot” issues.
2. I really really REALLY don’t like it when people charge my goalie and slash at her neck with the blades of their sticks. The refs agreed with me and told the girl who did it (on the first shift of the game!) to back off. This, of course, after I got in her face and pushed her.
3. Apparently my impulse control when I have a sinus infection is a little free-wheeling.

I’m really enjoying the composition of our team this year. Some people are playing new-to-them positions and are doing a really good job of it. Some people are settling into different positions than they played last year, even if they played those positions before. And the coaches are moving the rest of us around here and there to see what works. I’ve actually played a few games up at forward and have loved it!

The new folks on the team are fitting in quite nicely. Annie, Danielle, Lexie, Jillian, and Angela are all great additions, each in very different ways. We got solidity, quickness, ice-sense, and scoring ability in them, and in Angela have a goalie with a similar strong personality as our goalie last year (miss you Renee!) Although I’m still not sure which of them swears more…. maybe it’s a goalie thing!

I’m looking forward to the rest of the first half of our season, and to documenting a little bit more about our escapades on the ice.

Summer Hockey Stats

Here are my stats for the 2009 summer hockey season (last year in parentheses):

Games played: 49 (36)
Points: 21 (7)
Goals: 6 (2)
Assists: 15 (5)
Overall record: 28-19-2 (15-20-1)
Plus/Minus: +90/-67 of possible 173/137 (+68/-60 of possible 109/116)

Noted:

• More points! Yay!
• I played a lot more this summer than last summer.
• Adding a third team to the mix helped.
• Despite playing 49 games, I’m horribly out of shape. Practice is killing me.
• Way to go Forest, Thunder, and Sun Dogs!

Our regular season practices started 2 weeks ago and our first game is next Sunday. I’m wonderfully excited about our team this year, and hope we can do well enough to make another run at Nationals. We want to be Green Bay bound….

Cutest Hat Ever

Thanks, Mags! I can’t wait for the season to start so I can wear this all the time.

MAYHEM!

My good friend Libby put together a team for this past weekend’s first annual AOK Women’s Hockey Tournament. Libby’s really good at putting together tournament teams; in fact, I don’t think I’ve been to a tournament where she hasn’t organized the team.

At any rate, this iteration of tournament team included Libby, Amy, and me, along with 2 of our friends from summer hockey and one of our regular-season teammates. Then we picked up 3 folks from the tournament team we took up to NH this winter, 4 folks from one of our regular-season opponents (the goalie used to play on Black Ice with Libby before Amy and I moved to town), and someone Libby knows from learn-to-play. Now can you tell why the team name was Mayhem?

This rag-tag bunch of folks – most of us didn’t know each other before Friday evening – managed to put together quite a weekend.

Friday night we took on Raising Kane. It was a good, even game, but we managed to put a few more in the net than they did and skated away with a 6-3 victory. Saturday morning we played the Nighthawks. Now I will be the first to admit that I’m not a huge fan of the Nighthawks organization as a general rule. All the teams I’ve played against with the NH name have been incredibly physical, appear to play angry when losing, and enjoy racking up the score when they can. I am sure that my perception is likely just that: a perception. Still, I never enjoy playing any of their teams and Saturday’s game was no different than normal. Unfortunately, none of the Mayhem players had a very good game, and a few of the Nighthawks players were feeling score-y. We walked away with a 0-5 loss. *grumble* Later that afternoon we met up with the Randolph Flyers. This is also a team that most of us play in the regular season; they are a well-established team and know how to play well with each other. Fortunately, though, we had a better game than they did and came out with a 4-2 victory. So going into the evening, we were 2-1 with 10 goals against, 10 goals for. We didn’t think there was any way we’d end up in the finals the next day.

The hockey gods were smiling at us, however, and sent losses to all the other teams that we were tied with in that 2-1 record. So we ended up playing (dum da dummmmm!) the Nighthawks for the championship. Fortunately for us, we really gelled for the game, played well together, and put more pucks in the net than they did. There were some incredibly questionable calls on the ice (to the extent that the ref who wasn’t calling all the penalties on us was shaking his head each time the other ref’s arm would shoot up in the air) but in the end, we perservered. Mayhem won 4-2, and ended up getting our photos taken with a REALLY BIG TROPHY. Happily, the trophy stays at the rink and will simply have an engraved label affixed to it each year for that year’s winner.

Way to go Mayhem!

Nationals Redux

So my last post regaled you all with the stats from Nationals (yay! I got points! even though we lost!)

This one is just a few photos of some fun moments after we were done with all our games. There are more over on my Flickr account, and if you’re friends with any of the team through Facebook, there are albums on Judy’s, Laura’s, and Janet’s profiles.

It’s a Megan sandwich! Laura and Renee are the bread, I’m the meaty middle.

Renee, Sejal, and Laura kidnapped Amy while I was napping and returned her to her pigtail-wearing days. In a bar. While drinking scotch. Yeah, I don’t get it either, but they had a blast.

This is the back of Amy’s very special CCMM t-shirt. Mine says “I’m gonna squish you like a BUG”. It’s a long story that started with the hysterical laughter of great teammates all the way back in September at the Darcy Tournament and culminated for at least the two of us at Nationals.

We’ve since played in the Champlain Shootout, where we took not one of the top spots in our division (photos of one of our games available online).  I’m going to miss playing with the team this summer but am looking forward to the three leagues we are playing in all summer long (Walpole, Concord, and Marlboro…!)