Our finals campaign went into full swing 2nite. We were up against the Ice Bergs, who we played only 2weeks prior, who we lost too in the final seconds of the game. This game was an elimination and from the word go we were determined not to faulter this year. It started off as a pretty evenly matched game, untill Brett took a good shot from out long,only for it to be saved by the Bergs keeper, but Jay standing in a good postion was able to slot the loose ball into the net to get a 1 nil lead. Shortly afterwards saw another goal by Jay after some good team work and a break down the ice with only the keeper to beat. The 1st half ended with some good defence on our behalf as the Ice Bergs were not goin to loose without a fight. Great saves from karren kept our hope up and the 1st half remained 2nil. The 2nd half was a reply of the first, no team really getting the upper hand untill Jay made a break and slotted a neat pass for Dale to slam one into the net..69ers 3 Ice Bergs Nil. Soon after that a goal to Brett after some great lead up work from the team. The end result was a 4 nil thumping of the Ice Bergs and we move onto challange the Ice Breakers for 2nd spot and a game in the Grand Finals to take on Phoenix. I would like to personally congratulate the team for 2nites performance, we had only one reserve tonight and every single person who played gave it there all, well done team! :)
This was a danger game for both sides as up untill this round both the 69ers and Slush Puppies were equal on 10 points. Though Slush Puppies had duty early on so were already up by one point. This games winner would grab 4th spot and be able to contest the finals. A draw would allow the slush Puppies to leap ahead so we needed to win. The game was a quick game and scoring proved difficult with some great head saves by the Slush Puppies goalie! After some gruling attacking and defending by both sides (Jay got a close up of a broomball in the face, with no face cage, and later on that night copped a cheek full of the broomstick paddle). Scoring didn't eventuate till the last 10mins of the 2nd half. Both goals were scored by Dale with one being set up by Tracey. The end result was a 2 nil win, and we move into the finals, playing the IceBergs in an elimination final. Here we go fingers crossed this year we can make it to the finals!
The draw saw us take on the Ice Bergs this round. The team felt pretty confident as we enterd the rink, though being down a few key players (Karren=Goalie and Dale=Defence Expert) we held our heads high. The game started quick for us with the IceBergs looking slow and cumbersome. With some good attacking raids and a break away from Jay, we were able to slot one behind the keeper. Another goal was slotted in mid way through the 1st half, but was called back because of hand pass from Shara (after many different angles from the video ref, it was unclear if it was a hand pass..so it eventually went down to 'refs call'). The halftime score was 1nil our way....it wasn't till mid way through the 2nd half that the Icebergs got one goal to equalise (after 4 of our players were no where near the ball, we had one defender up against three attackers.) After that goal, a break away by Jay again looked set to have another goal on the board but some good goalie charging thwarted this attempt and the IceBergs were able to counter attack. With only 30secs on the clock we tried desperatly to keep out the Ice Bergs but with less then 20secs left they converted some good attack, and went on to win 2-1.
Monkey Magic would be our opponents tonight. We were determined not to underestimate them this time, and it showed during the game.We had alot of shots but some bad aiming and good defence from the Monkeys kept the score at 1nil. Brett got the first goal for the night! The score remained the same untill late in the 2nd half when Dave was able to do one of his close range 'pop up' shots. With a minute to go Brett posted his other goal to make it 3 nil. Now this puts us in 4th spot, we MUST win out next three to make sure we make the finals. Next week we are up against the Ice Bergs who have just come off 2 nil winners against Phoneix last week, they are the 1st team to beat them this year! Fingers crossed dudes! :-)
Tonight we were up against the Ice Breakers. This game was a very quick game with the ball never at one end for long. Alot of missed chances and some weak defence, told the story on the night. Goals went to Brett and Dale, but that wasn't enough, as Cliff had a few 'terror' runs, blitzing out whole team to set up two goals and score one himself. The end result was a 3-2 loss.
As u can see from this weeks heading, something bad happened! Tonight we were up against 1st placed Phoenix, and we were looking forward to a good game, since we were starting to play like a team the last 2 weeks! We played quite good i thought, only some poor defence in patches, and missing players like Eric,Dale and Tracey made it a hard night! The Phoenix were able to pile on 3 points, before Jay could slog one in from out wide midway through the second half! After a considerably amount of time in their half they made a break and scored again...making the end score 4-1 Phoneix way.
Thats right, u read it correctly! Finally we won our first game. Tonight we played against the Slush Puppies, and we thought that this was going to be a very hard and close game (becasue there previous 2 games they won 3 nil!) The score at the end was 6-2 69ers winning. Goals went to Eric 2,Jay,Dave,Ian and Steven, Dale had a huge part in the goals with 4 outstanding assists! (Saxon dude, Dale didn't get a goal that night, it should have read Eric 2 goals, 1 assist, and Dale 4 assits and no goals!) Also i must appolgise for my previous match review, the ref's for that game did a good job, our team was just sloppy and a lack of discipline was the cause for the number of sin bins! (Am i still up for the fine Sax?? :)-Jay) Anyways, it was a pretty good game, and lets hope we can build on this and beat the undeafeated Phoenix's next week!
Tonight we were up against the Ice Bergs. We were in for a big night, but not as 'controvosial' as it was. In the first half we had no less then 4 people sent to the sin bin, also alot of penalties for who knows what brought the first half into a stop go affair. The Ice Bergs captialised on our shortage of players (one time having 2 sin binned at same time) and scored. A 2nd goal for the Ice Bergs wasn't far off and they were leading 2 nil. After some continued attack on their goals Dave was able to do a small yet effective pass to Jay who was able to slot one in. With the scores 2-1 we didn't need them to score. With the clock counting down from 10secs in the first half.. the Ice Bergs broke away and headed up field. A goal was scored but dissmissed by the ref. as the 1st half had already ended. The 2nd half was a tough battle but we were able to stay mostly in there half. Dale took a beautiful backward 'magic' shot and scored to even things up. With the last few seconds on the clock Ice Bergs had another break...Eric ran out of the goals to defend, whilst the Ice Bergs took a shot it rebounded of the side post, and that was the end of the game. Hopefully this game will be the first of many good games this year.
Tonight we played the first competion game for the winter Div C comp. As most of our team feared, we lost, whilst being undefeated in the previous 4 'trial' games! Though we lost it was still a great game and i think that which ever team scored first would have won! That first goal was by the Phonex's midmay through the 1st half! After much defence and attack.. thats how it was at halfime! The 2nd half was intense and seemed to go on for ages! The 69ers...had plenty of shots (and 99.9% went towards the goals) but with some great defence and equally great saves by their keeper, we were not able to even things up! This team will most definatly make the finals and we hope to be there as well! Penalties were 2 a piece nothing to drastic except for a BIG 'collision' with Dale and the wall, (it looked pretty awsome..if we were playing in a full contact game..)other then that it was pretty clean game! Time to forget about the loss and look towards next week, and try and beat the Ice Breakers who we beat in the trials 3-2... but as u know trials are nothing to go by! untill next time! toodles!