Top of the Line

Tuesday was the rematch between the Sharks and the Killer Ice Bunnies. Last time we met it was a pretty one sided affair, but it was also an exhibition game which didn't mean anything.

With one of our top defensemen out with a season ending knee injury, suffered last game, I was expecting another grueling game of pretending to play as a defensemen. When the lines were read out, I was surprisingly playing forward (my crappy skating skills finally over came the need for defensemen). Not only was I playing forward, I was now winging on quite possibly the deadliest line to have ever been assembled.

Legion of Doom line, KLM line, Triple Crown line, Punch line, West Coast Express, Production Line, Life Line, any line with 80's Wayne Gretzky, meet your maker: the Chow Dang Chen line.

What we lack in skill, speed, skill, ability to stop, shot power, shot accuracy, shooting overall, passing, grit, skating, mobility, flexibility, agility, balance, depth, intimidation, strength, vision, experience, defense, offense, potential, hockey sense, sixth sense, common sense, jerseys that fit properly, we made up in the fact that we almost never come in offside as we're not fast enough to over skate the puck.

Back to the game: we fell behind 1-0 early, but had the tying goal in the second. It became clear early on that unlike the previous game where defense was the problem, the defense was the highlight this game, whereas it was the offense that was lacking this game.

On a completely separate and unrelated note, my move from defense to offense this game wasn't going too well. Someone must've tipped off the Killer Ice Bunnies prior to the game about the famed Chow Dang Chen line, as despite our best efforts, we were held pointless.

One of the girls on the opposing team somehow ended up on a clear breakaway from the center line on. She made her way in and potted it five hole on our goalie. If that was me in net I would have probably faked an injury right then and there, but apparently our goalie has far more class then me. He shook it off and played fantastic the rest of the game. In the third a puck was wristed in from the blue line and was tipped by one of our players pass the other team's goalie, tying the game at 2 a piece.

The third period solved nothing so we proceeded to over time having tied 2-2. On the powerplay in over time, the other team took a lot of bad penalties throughout the game, the puck made its way into the opposing teams zone. I was panicking on the bench about how I would cough up the puck in overtime, and during this time we scored. I didn't see how it went in, I'm just glad it did.

The other team played decent, we would've won in regulation had we converted on the MANY powerplays that we had, but we won and that's all that matters. Although being held pointless throughout the night, this was the first night in our newly formed top line. Chemistry comes first, scoring comes second. Maybe next game we'll try the triangle offense, where Chow streaks in first while Dang and Chen lag behind. I'm expecting goals in bunches the next game.