First league was Concord Women’s Summer Hockey League, a mixed-level league. Amy and I played on the purple team this summer, and while we didn’t win a lot of games, it certainly wasn’t for lack of scoring! We went 2-7-1 in the games Amy and I played with them (we ended up missing a couple of games due to vacation) and the combined total scores in those games was 32-42. So on average, the score for each game was about 3-4! I only ended up with one assist in the purple games we played, but did get a goal (against ELAINE!) when we subbed for the pink team. Not bad, for someone who doesn’t really score at all…

Funny story about our last game: we won even though we only had one of our B-level players (and her both hungover and showing up for the second two periods of the game) against a team with a wicked awesome goalie. (Yes, the afore-mentioned ELAINE.) As we were getting ready to play, one of our regular subs, Carol from the maroon team, was talking about how to score on Elaine. The upshot was: we can’t, so get in front of her and block her view. Me, being the alternative theory girl, thought maybe Carol was being a little pessimistic and reframed her statement as: one of the more effective ways to score against her is to block her view.  And wouldn’t you know it, but one of our two goals was because she was screened and couldn’t see where the puck had gone!

And then after the game some woman walked into the locker room wanting to buy a couple of purple jerseys. Not needing purple jerseys any longer, Amy and I practically threw ours at her and used the cash for a quick meal on the way home.

Our second league was the Walpole Adult Women’s Hockey League. We played with Raising Kane this summer and had a total blast! We ended up at 6-7, and had the same number of goals for and goals against (38). I scored a goal against my former goalie Lynn and her team, the Mustang Sallies, and picked up several assists over the course of the summer. We got the chance to sub for a few other teams too, including the team we’re going to play with this coming season.

The best part of playing on Raising Kane wasn’t getting better at hockey (although that was good). No, the best part was playing with a great group of women, most of whom I’d not met before. Shastin, Lynne, Karen, Annie, Maura, Kristen, Libby, Pam, Donna, Fran, Nancy, Joni, AmyN, and AmyB – what fun it was! I’d play with any of them at any point, even if sometimes I try to score goals on some of them (sorry Joni!) and other times I throw some of them to the ice (sorry Pam!) and then on very rare occasions I make a bad decision on the ice (sorry Sarge….)

The league hired a photographer to shoot some of our games, and for some reason he ended up shooting us a few times: 6/25 agains the Raiders, 7/23 against the Mustang Sallies, and 7/30 against the Pumas. The photos are un-downloadable and copyright the photographer, so I’ll just link you to a few of my favorite pics:

• Skating with the puck
• Pam, bowing to Sarge
• Hanging in front of Joni
• Laughing with Shastin
• Making a move past Deroda (while subbing for the Sallies)
• Amy making a strong pass (while subbing for the Sallies)

But the best photos of Raising Kane were taken by our very own Karen Winger, who was sadly injured for the second half of the summer. (Side note one: Karen also played in the Concord league on the pink team. I think she faked her injury so she wouldn’t have to wear the eye-searingly-bright pink jersey.) (Side note two: Karen plays with many of the Pumas during the regular season; that’s the team in black in these photos.) This was a quarterfinal game for the playoffs; we won and ended up losing in the next round to Lugano. (Side note three: Amy, Libby, and I are all going to be playing with most of the players on Lugano during the upcoming regular hockey season.) (Side note four: If you are vaguely social and you hang around CWSHL, WAWHL, and SSWHL long enough, you’ll end up knowing a LOT of hockey players.)

Go check out Karen’s awesome photos of our playoff game against the Pumas! There are a bunch of really funny pictures in that set, mostly of AmyB and LynneM.

AmyB:

• Do we get a goal if I’m in the net?
• Yo! Where’s the puck?
• The Patented Human Zamboni Poke-Check

LynneM:

• It’s hard to make that gesture while wearing hockey gloves. (And yet she can!)
• Get away from my goalie!
• Aaaaaahhhhhh!
• May the force be with you…

And then there is photographic evidence of Joni’s Awesome Game!

• She’s got the post
• Blocking Bridget (she who makes goalies cry)
• And blocking Bridet again
• Ready...
• And ready again…

My favorite of me (and my new Facebook profile photo) is this one, where I swear I’m leaving Pamie in my dust!

Like I said, it was a great summer playing with this team and I’ll miss playing with them. But the regular season is getting underway already – we’ve had two practices with our new team (more on that in the next post) and have a tournament coming up in a couple of weeks. Good times, this playing of hockey.