dirtystylus

Saturday was all about hockey, hockey, and more hockey. Jordan goes out of town for Caroline’s bridal shower, and look what happens. First Evan dropped by for a Stanley-cup series between the Kings and Rangers on NHL 08, before heading out to attend a baby shower somewhere in the bowels of Brooklyn. Then, much later on (11:30 pm start times are killer) the Sled Dogs notched a 6-0 win over the Rockets. I picked up my first two goals of the season, along with two assists. I was on LW this time, skating with Harry on RW and a rotation of centers (we had 4 instead of the usual 3). Joseph had been giving me advice over the phone during the last month, telling me to go to the backhand more often, since goalies at all levels have trouble reading it, and it paid off with my first-ever goal. We were up 1-0 when Kris (who was one of my classmates at the Wednesday instructional) made a nice hold at left point and sent it back down to the corner, where I made one move to get around a defenseman before throwing it to the net on the backhand. I actually thought that the goalie had stopped it and the ref’s whistle was just for a faceoff, so I was already skating off for a shift change when harry looked at me and said, “Hey – that actually went in!”. My first assist came off the rush, when John K (playing center) drove wide on left wing with the puck, while I beelined for the net. John centered the puck to me, and I got the puck facing away from the goal. Seeing Harry trailing the play in the high slot, I tapped it over to him quickly and he put it away for the goal. That shift was particularly gratifying because the three of us did what the coaches always tell you to do – have the puck carrier drive wide, the second man head for the far post to draw defenders, and the third man stays in the high slot.

The second assist came on a headman play where I got the puck at the half-boards in our defensive zone, and I spotted Alex and Tom coming off the bench into the neutral zone. I quickly sent the puck down to Alex, who tipped it over to Tom who was already flying down the right side and had a breakaway that he put past the goalie.

I don’t actually remember much about my second goal, which closed out the scoring – I think it was a dump-in to the left corner that I just took to the front of the net and put a shot on that trickled through the pads (see a trend here?). I remember more about the prelude to the goal, where we kept cycling the puck with strong work by Tom, Melanie and me.

I also hit the right post midway through the game during one of the many shifts where we were cycling the puck deep in the Rockets’ zone. They only had three defensemen, so by the third period they were gassed and had trouble making clears.

The biggest highlight of the game, however, was the first ever career goal for our LW Alissa, who finally notched on after some 3-plus seasons at the Chelsea Piers league. At the Half King after the game we had more than a few rounds of shots to celebrate her goal (and my first-ever goal as well). Let’s just say that making it to church the next morning was a particular challenge.

To top off the hockey weekend, the Kings pulled out an incredible 6-5 OT victory against the Stars after trailing 4-0 with seven (!) minutes left in the third period. The same Stars who had won 34 straight when leading by two or more goals after two periods. Thank goodness I remembered to record the game. Anze Kopitar scored the game-winner on the–you guessed it–backhand.