Fall/Winter 2010 Champions!

That's right, the Ice Holes did it. We were able to pull out a hard fought league championship. In my last post we were heading into playoff showndown #1 with the Tuques. It was a killer game, but we were able to come away with the 2-1 win moving us into the championship round. The Tuques were dropped into the consolation bracket where they were fortunate to get by the Instigators in OT. They tied that game with 48 sec left and then won via the shootout.

That set up playoff game #2 vs the Tuques which was not as favorable for us. They came out like a desperate team and flat out worked us in the game. Yet we still went into the 3rd period tied at 2 and after allowing a bad goal against, we were again able to tie the score at 3 with around 8 minutes to go. It looked like momentum was starting to swing our way, and that we would be heading to overtime, when the Tuques got a fluke goal with 48 sec left (sound familiar/ 2:06 in the video link below) in the game. So that set up game #7 against the tuques this season. A one game, winner take all finale.

This game started much like the previous game. We left the Tuques jump out to an early 1-0 lead, but tied the game right at the end of the first period. They jumped out 2-1 midway through the second, but again we were able to even the score at 2 before the intermission.

And then we played our best period of hockey all season long. Something happened and we just took over all aspects of the game. The Tuques lost their cool and began collecting penalties like they were rare coins or stamps. And my line was able to exploit their defense. We scored 3 goals on one shift to puch the lead to 5-2 before the Tuques got one back on a power play. But on the next shift, our defenseman who had been serving the penlaty, was able to go down and put one in the net making the score 6-3 which would prove to be the final score.

It was really fun to get back into a game with the intensity that this game had (even though, as Rachelle likes to point out, it was only a men's league game). Members of the Tuques took it so seriously, they created a video trailer before the game which they posted on their team facebook page (yes, they really did make one). You can see the video here (http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/video/video.php?v=10150141301725285&oid=133697366852). On a side note, when you click on the link, that is me with the puck in the thumbnail for the video, and for some reason they put clips of me scoring against them in their team highlight video (see 0:44 sec).

After the game, the league director brought out the league trophy for us to goof around with and take photos with (hence the above picture) and he also brought us championship shirts into the locker room.

All in all, it was great to get back into a league again. I can't wait for the fall season to come back around so I can get back into it. (I'm taking the summer off to save money for the fall unless you would like to make a charitable donation to me).