Past few days I kept checking the Ice604 website to see who won the Fighting Irish and Cubz series. You know, to see who we'd play in the finals. Yes, I was already looking past the Red Devils. You always hear athletes say to never look past the game at hand, but curiosity got the better of me.
In front of a packed crowd of 15 strong, the Sharks faced off against the Red Devils where they faced elimination. The game started with the Red Devils going full force, with most of the first period played on our end. I still could not point out one player that looked like he belonged in the lowest tier, maybe I'm just bitter. With shots raining down from all sides, Randy the goalie stood strong flashing the leather, and kicking out the pads throughout the night. Randy kept us in the game as we ended the first period in a scoreless tie.
The second period would be more of the same with a bit of angst. Neither team was able to score, but the Red Devils showed why they were the most penalized team in the league as they hooked and cross checked throughout the rest of the game. Things got a little bit chippy when one of the Devils blew a tire and crashed into Randy the goalie, Chris stood up for the goalie and got a face full of glove for his trouble. This drew a major penalties, but resulted in no goals. Zeroes across the scoreboard to end the second.
The third period brought in an air of tension as we were trying to avoid the third game that the Red Devils so desparately wanted. Past the midway mark of the third, the Sharks were on a power play but forked the puck over resulting in a partial breakaway. With Sharks tailing close behind, the Devils player didn't get his A shot off but Randy the goalie came up big to keep the game scoreless. With both teams playing very responsibly on defense the third period ended 0 - 0 leading us to overtime. Four on four overtime, we stacked the lines with our top players to try to end the game early. Unfortunately this didn't work. Overtime settled nothing, and the game went to a shootout.
As a kid playing street hockey, the two things I practiced the most was the breakaway shootout, and the goal celebration after the breakaway shootout. But being in an actual shootout with the game on the line, was nerve racking.
Here it was, the biggest game of the season and it would be settled via mono a mono, player vs goalie shootout. We opted to shoot first, sending out the Sharks' leading scorer Wes. Wes moved from right to left then shot high blocker side but missed the net. For the Red Devils, they sent their captain, who flew in and went forehand backhand, and managed to deke out Randy the goalie. The Sharks captain was up next. He swung out wide and cut back in to shoot five hole, but couldn't squeeze it by the goalie in red. The second shooter for the Red Devils skated in, made some sort of deke and looked like he fumbled the puck but by some fluke of the century, slid past Randy the goalie. The Red Devils win the shootout with two goals, to win the game 0-1, forcing a do or die game three next Wednesday.
The best player was no doubt Randy the goalie, who kept us in the game all night. One goal was all it took to win it, and we let Randy down. Maybe I should've spent less time practicing the goal celebration as a kid.
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