Call for the drug testing, force a roster breakup….the London Werewolves Senior Master’s Team had a 2 (count em….TWO) game winning streak after last Friday night’s game. Unprecedented!
Driving up to Midland for the first game, the omens were not good – cancellations and inability to attend due to work, hockey (really?), golf (double really?) put the expected roster of runners at 6-7 – not a good thing. The 10:00pm dressing room seemed empty with only 5 runners but JKOW was on his way – 6 runners, no problem – we’re stupid/tough. The game against perennially strong Huntsville team started well, 2 quick goals from Mike, our new recruit from Barrie, and we were looking for a reason to have the game called so we could retire ahead of the game. Unfortunately we had to keep going and Huntsville clawed back to lead by 1, 2-3 at the end of the 1st. Jason, arriving late due to tardiness (and traffic, or so he says) added a couple in the 2nd and with one more goal the Wolves were up by 2, 5-3. One more period to go….WHAT could go wrong? Russ added 1 but Huntsville replied, so we were going in to the last couple of minutes up 6-4. Then Tom took a penalty to make life interesting – Huntsville power play with just over 2 minutes remaining – could the Wolves hold on or would we be sent whimpering to the dressing room to drown our sorrows…again? Then, taking a page from the Team Blair handbook, ahead by 2, time running out, Russ forced a (weak and totally unneeded) shot at the Huntsville net…and hit their player – dangerous shot, already a man in the box and less than 2 minutes to go – not sure what the exact rule interpretation is, but Huntsville was awarded 2 penalty shots! WONDERFUL! They scored on the 1st one but their key shooter, tripped, stumbled and shot into the goalies’ chest (not entirely sure in what particular order) and hope came back to life. Less than a minute to go the Wolves defense was able to get to a loose ball and get it down the floor and another London goal was scored. Time ran out on a London 7- Huntsville 5 score – and the crowd went wild! 2 wins in row and a .750 winning percentage for the season! Unbelievable! There was serious discussion about total team retirement on a winning note but unfortunately the threat of forfeiture fines brought everyone back to reality.
Saturday, with a couple of player additions, things returned to a semblance of normality – Durham struggled a bit but was able to score early and then maintain their lead over London resulting in a Durham 7 – London 5 final. Close game and with some luck things could have ended far differently. In the late Saturday game, Beaches started strong and threatened to run up the score early but the Wolves bore down and kept picking away. Beaches players were outraged at our lack of respect for their innate destiny(privilege) to always win and began to take some questionable penalties. Alas, too little and too late, Wolves were not able to seal the deal with the game ending Beaches 7 – London 5. For Sunday morning, we were down a player but were able to trade some used socks and a couple of balls to return Chris Tighe to our roster from his unforgivable defection to the Barrie team. A quick and enjoyable game was had but unfortunately not a symmetric end to the weekend – no 7-5 win, or even a portentous numeric omen of another 7-5 score – …sigh…. Barrie held on to win over a surprisingly strong London team – Barrie 8 – London 5. All games close and competitive – 2 new recruits for the rest of the summer that should make a difference….things are looking up -(Hope Springs Eternal ™ version). On to the ‘Boro for the June 5-7 tournament!
G2