A hot night at Kinsmen last night, victories for Team Jacquie and Team Lia, almost a forfeit for Team Blair…

In the early game, both teams were raring to go without either of their team owners on the bench. The first period was low scoring with goalies stopping most of the shots that penetrated the stingy defenses. Team Lia scored a couple while Team Dirka was only able to respond once resulting in Team Lia leading 2-1 at the end of 1. In the 2nd, stingy defense was evident again as Team Dirka was only able to pop a couple of goals while shutting down the Team Lia offense completely! At the end of the 2nd period Team Dirka led 3-2. The anemic offenses could last so long and both teams upped their games in the 3rd, Team Dirka adding 3 goals but Team Lia keeping up and then scoring a couple of late goals to tie it up and pull into a single goal lead with a couple of minutes left to play. Team Dirka pressed hard, with numerous close in chances, but GordC, with the help of his goal posts was able to deny all of the attempts and DylanE scored an insurance marker with seconds to play to give Team Lia a hard earned 8-6 victory. With the win, Team Lia moves closer to 2nd place and Team Dirka falls deeper in the overall standings.

In the 2nd game Team Blair was flirting with a forfeit for insufficient players (the first of Summer 2017) but a last minute arrival gave them 5 runners and the opportunity to borrow a couple of runners from Team Jacquie to bolster their bench (and hopefully prevent any cardiac events). As in the early game, the 1st period was highlighted by stingy defense and good goal tending – Team Jacquie  was able to score a couple while surprisingly keeping Team Blair completely off the board – exiting the period leading 2-0. In the 2nd Team Jacquie’s snipers started getting untracked with a couple of nice passing plays leading to some pretty quick-stick goals – scoring 3 times to up their lead to 5. Stonewall defense plus awesome goal tending from GordC kept Team Blair completely of the scoreboard for a 2nd straight period. In the 3rd, the teams exchanged goals with Team Blair getting lots of opportunities and finally breaking Gord’s potential shutout with close to 10 minutes still to play. Would finally scoring a goal change the momentum of the game? Would there be enough time left to make the game interesting? Unfortunately, a hard shot off the unprotected inside of GoalieGord’s knee would prevent these questions from being answered. No backup goalie (it is HL!) and only a few minutes left to play in an overheated, hot and muggy arena – game called resulting in a Team Jacquie victory over Team Blair – 6-1. Team Jacquie opens a 3 point lead atop the standings and there are ominous omens about Team Blair turnout in the dog days of summer 2017.

Next is Week #12, Wednesday July 19, 2017 Kinsmen Arena

Team Jacquie  vs.  Team Lia     8:00  –  9:00pm.

Team Blair  vs.  Team Dirka     9:00pm  – 10:00pm.

See you then.

G2