Slinky
(click to enlarge)
(click here to view the game pics)
If I thought I was nervous about playing back-to-back games in Week 1 of the Spring Mixer — ha! I was pretty anxious before this game, so much so that once I began to exit the locker room to hit the ice early and warm up as much as possible, I realized I forgot to put my leg pads on! My leg pads of all things! Christ. I guess it was because I was subbing for a different team altogether, rather than one of my own teams.
I played against the Gold team (Goldschläger) with the Turtles in the pre-season game, losing 6 – 5, and against Moussaka last week, also with the Turtles, for a 3 – 3 tie. This was the first time these two teams played against each other. We were down 2 – 0 (the final score), and things got really ugly late in the third period.
I’ve never played a game in which things got that bad. Women’s hockey doesn’t allow checking, or at least our league (WCHL) and certainly the Mixer, which is a house league do not. I don’t even think it’s allowed where I sometimes play rat hockey with guys. Anyway, the puck was behind the net in our zone, controlled by one of our D’s. A Moussaka player was practically on top of her, going after the puck — nothing out of the ordinary. I was hugging the post watching the play, which happened so fast, next thing I saw was my teammate’s face contorted in pain! I mean, I’ve never seen such an expression that close up, that near me, and live as opposed to like, TV and the movies. She hit the boards so hard that the glass was shaking! I was so stunned, and even more so because I thought Moussaka would get a penalty. It’s certainly possible that the offending player tripped, but it looked to me that she deliberately took down my teammate with her.
Shortly afterwards, a different Goldschläger teammate either checked or cross-checked (hit a player from behind with both hands on your stick and no part of the stick touching the ice) a Moussaka player, but I don’t know if it was the same one who slammed our D into the boards. Although this occurred behind our net, I didn’t see it happen, but I felt it. The puck must have been somewhere in front of me, and I remember making an extra effort to track it this game. Witnesses say that the ref already blew the whistle (but I’m not sure what for) when the incident took place. It took a while for Moussaka to get up, but she did.
Now rumors abound that a formal complaint will be filed; the Goldschläger teammate will be booted out of the league supposedly, etc., etc. I also learned that someone on another team has already been kicked out, though I don’t know what her offense was.
Brian’s Goalie Summary
After losing two games (the pre-season one doesn’t count), and then a tie last week, I lost yet again. Brian, and even some of my teammates said we only had 9 or 10 SOG’s the whole game. Meanwhile, I faced 18 and only let 2 in — that’s 16 saves, which is pretty good, I think, especially for someone in my level facing more advanced players, so why doesn’t it feel that way?
First Period: Scoreless.
Second Period: One goal by Moussaka. It was another one of those plays where an opponent to my left shot it to her teammate on my right, and I gave up too much of the net on my glove side, allowing the shooter an easy one-timer. You can see the play happen here. Brian captured the photo op spectacularly!
Third Period: Moussaka hit a slapshot from just inside our blue line, which I blocked. Unfortunately, the puck rebounded and after a scrum in front of the net (see above pictures), they managed to push it in for their second goal.
But hey — a save story! Minutes later, I stopped a breakaway from Moussaka #5, who scored their first goal and happens to play on the Tigers White squad. Check it out — all this happened in three seconds! You’ll have to click to enlarge, of course, and be sure to check out the large sizes! 
Definitely an accomplishment — I stopped a breakaway by a white-level player! 
Goalie Stats
For stats abbreviation key, see below.
KEY
GP: (# of) games played
GA: goals against (shots I let in)
GAA: goals against average (GA divided by GP)
S: shots against (how many shots I faced)
Sv %: (S minus GA divided by S)
W: wins
L: losses
T: ties
W %: win percentage (W divided by GP)
SO: shutouts (when you don’t let in any goals at all the entire game–or like in the 3rd period when I didn’t let in any goals, that’s considered a shutout period, but don’t count in stats)
Always a bad thing when there is too much hitting in women’s hockey.
Of course, I’ve also been called for a cross-check myself, so I’m not innocent. BUT the time I got called, we were all in a big heap and I used my stick across someone’s back to push me up. ARGH. Dumb me – but it was my first-ever game and I didn’t know any better.
A few games ago – in a tournament – I got punched by someone behind the net. That was new to me. Chippy chippy chippy!
Hope your future games are better.
I think your situation was different, though. You didn’t know. Unfortunately, she admitted to the ref that what she did was in retaliation for the earlier hit on our other teammate. I’m positive I heard the word “retaliaion,” anyway.
This is exactly why I feel safer goaltending!
Hee hee hee… give me some banging around the boards any day. The idea of having to be in goal freaks me out – that small little hard thing flinging through the air at my head… Aaaaieeee! This is why I don’t play softball. At least in hockey we wear protective gear.
Yeah, but goalies are so well protected. In the pre-season game I stopped a puck with my head!
I love playing softball, though I’ll admit that the first time I ever broke a bone — at the age of 30, mind you — it was from playing catch with Brian. I, of course, was too busy chit-chatting. I saw the ball coming; it was basically a high pop-up — even had my glove in the air. But I didn’t move it in time and it landed on my right eye! They called it an orbital blowout fracture, whatever that means. Basically, I broke my face!
In Chicago, most of the park district softball leagues are played with a 16″ softball, so you can’t really get hurt. They’re harder to hit as far, too, and you don’t even need gloves.