Champions - Everett Ravens Annual Ice Hockey Tournament

My 2007-2008 winter season with the Seattle Women's Hockey Club and the Castle Ice Friday Night League are both coming to a close. So, that can only mean....tourney time!! This past weekend, I was asked at the last minute to play defense on a team that was made up primarily of women from my SWHC league (they're also the defending champs). Initially, I only committed to sub for a couple games because I really wanted to get in a long bike ride on Sunday. But, three things changed my mind: a) snow (in March - I know...freaky weather this year); b) revenge, and; c) I was having so much fun playing with this team.

We kicked off the tournament late Friday night against the host team, the Everett Ravens. I think the puck dropped at 11:45 pm (yes, pm, not am), and we were done by 1:15 am. Wired from skating really hard that night, and from the post-game chocolate cupcakes, I think I finally fell asleep at 3:30 am. We won that first game 3-2 - the score should've been more but their goalie was on fire. She stopped 66 shots on goal. Kelly, our goalie took about 12 shots on goal and every now and then we would let the other team breakout just to keep her awake :-)

Thank goodness our second game the following day was at 2:30 pm. It was against the Portland Phoenix and we knew that they were likely going to be in the finals. Our game was close up until the last 5 minutes and the final score was 3-0. But, shots on goal was close (26 vs 21??) and the teams were pretty close, skillwise. So, revenge was on our minds and we wanted a rematch.

I didn't play the third game on Saturday because I agreed to sub for another team in another league with most of their players out for the Everett tournament. I just wanted some ice time and I got it - only 7 players showed up and NO GOALIE. But, we won! Something about not having a goalie makes people step up their game and play more aggressively. Meanwhile, my team in the tournament won their game with a score of 12-0 (I think they had 60+ shots on goal again) so we were in the finals.

Sunday, the final game was at 11:15 am and my team was totally pumped up (fresh from their morning cup of java??). Seriously, I've never skated with a team that had so much energy, intensity, and skated 110% *every* shift. Our coach, Patrick, was also awesome....he had this quiet intensity on the bench and reiterated throughout the tournament that the winner will be the team that wants it the most. We were hungry - we came out of the gates and peppered their goalie with shots, made great passes, and held the blue line...it paid off and we scored first. But then, a few minutes later, Portland tied and the score remained 1-1 until the end of regulation. We were definitely getting opportunities and were spending more time in their zone. By the end of the game, we had 33 shots on goal compared to their 12. It was also the end of the tourney so it boiled down to who was less fatigued (and this is why I drag my ass to spin classes and bike for 4+ hours). Portland's "ringer" was losing her edge a lot so it was clear she was tired. We hung in there and it was Mel's backhand shot over the goalie's shoulder that won it for us 2:30 minutes into overtime. Woot! What a game - what a tourney! Next tournament is in Victoria, BC next weekend. I'm looking forward to it, but unfortunately, I will be playing against a lot of the women I played with this past weekend.

Bring it on!
Buttercup #19