I’m liking the progression of these tournament posts – there is a certain inevitability about them…at least so far.

After the surprisingly easy drive to Peterborough for the 11pm start, London Seniors were faced with their typical roster issues – a couple of injuries, a couple of late regrets…9 runners…sigh… New pinnies were distributed and we looked pretty impressive on the floor, at least until the first face off whistle.  A fairly nondescript game against Halton Hills ending with a 2-8 loss. With a few additional (key) runners the score would have been much closer and a 2nd 2015 victory over Halton could have been possible (maybe).

After much deliberation and strategy discussions after the Friday night game, we were on the floor Saturday noon against the RezDogs. After falling behind early, London came back strong and was coasting with a 6-2 lead late in the 3rd. What COULD go worng?  RezDogs score 1 to make it 6-3 with 3 minutes left…no problem, then another with about a minute and a half left, 6-4, still no problem…right? A couple of stops, a couple of loose balls and London has the ball with 30 sec left and an unnamed player (I promised Mark I wouldn’t reveal his identity) runs up the boards, in full control, no one pressing and instead of passing the ball to kill time just rolls it along the boards. Wait, what…. check the point spread and betting records! RezDogs come back hard, shoot, but, surprisingly, the save is made (or they hit the goalie…whatever), less than 15 sec left, goalie in control of the ball behind the net, …waits 5 sec and lofts the ball to an open player up the floor …. and passes it right to the RezDogs player 10 ft in front of an empty net who makes no mistake and lobs it in to the centre of the netting …sigh…. 6-5 with 7 sec left. With the JKOW injured, RezDogs win the faceoff easily, press and get another shot but hit the goalie stick…barely. This time no mistake and the clock runs out for a London win, Werewolves 6 – RezDogs 5. Nothing if not exciting. Probably should have retired and gone home at that point in time.

Unfortunately 2 more games had to be played resulting in losses of 3-8 to Brampton and 5-14 to Niagara. Still, 3 wins for the season so far – haven’t seen that in recent memory. Next up is the Fergus tournament July 17-19 weekend when we should have our full roster back and hopefully make a stab at wins 4,5 and maybe even 6 and 7 – hope springs eternal!

G2

1st game – pffftttt! – the less said the better. Team Juniors 11  – Team Russ 3.

2nd game started out close, few goals and lots of back and forth. 1st period ended tied at 1. In the 2nd, Team Bill pulled ahead by one early but the rest of the period was all team Blair.  Team Blair’s Jeff and Ian combination exploded for 4 quick goals and the period ended with Team Blair ahead 6-2. The 3rd period settled down to more back and forth and the game ended with another Team Blair victory 7 – 4 over Team Bill.

London Werewolves are off to Peterborough for a tournament this weekend with the first of the new pinnies promised. Hopefully a new look will translate into another win…or two. Hope springs eternal.

Next week is Week #7, the start of the 3rd go round – Wednesday June 10, Kinsmen Arena

Team Blair  vs.   Team Juniors     8:00pm – 9:00pm

Team Bill  vs.  Team Russ     9:00pm – 10:00pm

See you all next week.

G2

The 1st game started fairly slowly – both goalies stopping the first few chances and the play going back and forth with few results – 1st period ended with Team Russ leading Team Blair 2-1. By the end of the 2nd period Team Russ had extended their by one and it looked like Team Blair would be unable to recover. Then, suddenly in the 3rd, Team Blair seemed to wake up and scored 3 quick goals to take the lead heading in to the late minutes of the game. But, as was the case a couple of weeks ago, they were unable to hold the lead and Team Russ scored a late goal  to even it up. Team Blair pressed near the end but was unable to get any further goals and then time ran out with the score deadlocked, Team Blair 7 – Team Russ 7.

The 2nd game was tight as well – 1st period ended tied at 2 and the 2nd period was deadlocked at 4. In the 3rd Team Bill pulled ahead and the odds-makers were wondering whether G2’s streak of goal-tending victories would stop at 6 (1 in a 1000 yr probability) or unbelievably be extended to 7 (1 in 3000 yr probability) – as noted in various financial advertising, past results do not necessarily guarantee or even predict future performance – the streak ended with  Team Juniors pressuring and scoring a couple of late goals to run out the game for a well deserved victory – final score Team Juniors 7 – Team Bill 6.

Next week is the end of the 2nd go round – Week #6, June 3, 2015 Kinsmen Arena

Team Juniors  vs.  Team Russ     8:00pm – 9:00pm

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

Games seem to be pretty close and turnout seems acceptable so, barring any sudden flurry of blowout games no significant re-balancing is being contemplated. See you all next week.

G2