Let me start from the beginning. All I wanted was Dad to be my head coach this year. I knew that if he got a job, he could protect another really good player (I initally thoght Kutek, but after hearing he was going Churchill, I thought Rory) to be my sidekick, or companion. I knew that if this did indeed happen, me and my companion along with Dad as head coach, there was no way that we would fall anywhere short of the second round of districts. He ended up not applying on time, though when they announced the head coaches for this year, they said that there was still another Midget coach needed. He got in there, though they gave the job to Massa, who in turn protected MacLennan. Instantly, I knew this was the team I wanted to be on. Us three wouldbe instoppable. I called Coach Mac the night before the draft and told him that I wanted nothing more than to be on his team. Anyways, when I got my call on that Sunday morning, it was not MacLennan or Massa. It was not Paquette, who I thought would be out for me too. It was not Reed, who I thought didn't really knew who I was, and it was not the Dowd-Fredendall team that I thought would never take me. No, a man by the name of Jim Miller called and told me I was a Blackhawk. He read me the names of the players we had, and all my enthusiasm for the season died. We had one other good player named Downey, and after that first practice, he informed us he was going to play high school hockey at Salem, and was leaving the team after only the second practice. Also, our manager Mr. Marabeas informed us that his son, our goalie Nick, did not want to play hockey, and he was leaving the team, and we needed to find a new manager. This us with our only goalie as the one and only Andrew Barna, who was the dead last pick in the draft, with me being the very first. I knew we were screwed. We ended up picking up former high school player Jeremy Stover, who became a legit assest to the team. Though with our other top names being names like Zytowski, Pascal and Racer, I knew we were doomed. We ended up picking up two other players off the hotwire that have only hurt us so far, Andridge and Resetar. However, we were able to beat Paquette's Canadiens twice, and beat Dowd's Flyers twice (with me getting the game winners with 12 seconds left in the first one and three minutes left in the second win). We also got rocked by the Sharks 8-1 (I got the one) and the Flames 12-3 (I got the first, then got a 2 and a 10 when the score was us down 3-2, and when I came out 12 minutes later, the score was 10-3). However, going into last Sunday night's game, we had our 8 points from the four wins, the Flames had 9 points, and the Sharks had 10. We all had two games left to play, and luckily our two were against the two teams that we were fighting against to get into districts, so we controlled our own destiny with the fact that if we win both, we're in. On sunday night we faced off against the Sharks who absolutely rocked us the first time. We honestly had like 4 shots on goal. We came out and scored first. We swapped goals until it was 4-4 with three minutes left. I get out there and pick up the puck at center ice, skate around the outside to the right, speed around the defender to angle that I could come in on the goalie, got in there as if it was a breakaway, and flipped the puck over the goalie's left shoulder (I can't remember if I used my forehand or backhand). I went nuts, yelled at the top of my lungs with my hands in the air, and got ambushed by my mates as we went up 5-4. So I obviously stayed out on the ice, since there was only two minutes left. With 6.8 seconds left, an icing was called on us when Pascal dumped it out of our zone but missed the open net. Then coach calls me off the ice for Racer, who claims to be the "face-off king". However, Racer lost the faceoff, the Sharks got it back to their pointman, and he took a weak on the ice shot, then dribbled through everybody, and eventually Barna's legs and into the net with 2 seconds left. My heart broke. I knew we no longer controlled our own districts destiny, and we would need other unlikely things to happen in order for us to get in to a spot to just have a chance at getting a districts berth.Not only that, but the way we just lost our own destiny, it killed me. It's all I could think about all week at school, and it haunted me up to that Friday. What now needed to happed was that the thin Flyers needed to beat or tie the Flames to keep them within reach, because they automatically had the second tiebreaker on us which is +/- when they were a +19 and were are a -6. So I ended up going to the Flyers-Flamers game on Friday night, and when I got there the Flyers were already up 2-0, which was incredible. However, within less than a minute Reed put one in to make it 2-1. Fastforward to 4 minutes left in the 3rd period, game tied 4-4, Flyers on a powerplay. Mikitaroff gets a pass in front of the net, pulls a move, has a wide open net, tries to make it look pretty and goes backhand, and hits the post. Fastforward to 30 seconds left. Goddard has the puck behind the Flamers goal, and is fighting for it with a D. For 5 seconds, 10, seconds, 15 seconds... It finally breaks loose in the Flames possession with 15 seconds left, and they break it out to center ice. It's a 3 on 2, and I then realize that it's Mifsud carrying the puck up the ice with 11 seconds to go. He skates to the left and beats the defender, pulls in front of Fredendall with no one between them, shoots the puck, and the stands go wild. It's on the far end of the ice, so I can't see it very clearly, epescially with it being at Devonaire. Tony semi puts his hands up, and the other Flames skate over to him and give him a pat. It was the most intense moment that I have ever experienced, and I was sitting there thinking that this was how my season was going to end. But the ref didn't move. He stayed in the zone. Both of them. One was standing at the faceoff dot inside the zone. I was sitting there tensed up like I never had been before wondering what the call was. Everyone lined up for the faceoff in the Flyers zone with 4.8 seconds left. No Goal. I finally exhaled, and realized my season wasn't over. The Flyers were smart enough to fall on the puck and just not let the Flamers win the faceoff so that they could walk away with a tie. Alive. We now play the Flamers on Tuesday night for all the marbles. They win, we're out. We tie, we're out. We win, we're in. Now that I have been given this great second chance at a district playoff berth, I'm going to seize it, and there is no way that we lose Tuesday night.
That's about it though. Just some insane hockey with me having another four goal game today against KV in a 5-5 tying effort (Pascal also got kicked out and is now suspended for the Tuesday nighter). In our team's last 8 non-loss games, I have scored the game-winning or tying goal in every one, and and have scored in 9 of our last 10 games. That's about it though. NFL and studying tomorrow with our only practice before the Tuesday nighter. I'm so insanely pumped for that game you have no idea. I hope to be able to tell you all about it out of joy and excitement, and not depression. I also updated my facebook status for the first time ever due to these extreme events. "Shane is Tuesday Night"
