Our friend, Dawgs30 (goalie for the Ice Dawgs), is at it again. Our first round opponents for the playoffs, the Kodiaks, put this up on their website:
…Ice Dawg goaltender has offered to purchase adult refreshments (aka Skatetown Ale) to all the Kodiaks if they can pull off the upset of the hogs. While the bears don’t need the extra inspiration, who are they to decline the offer?
I would suggest to Dawgs30 that he put his money where his mouth is and play goal for the Kodiaks when we face them tomorrow night. Otherwise, don’t ask other teams to do what his own team couldn’t this season.
As for the Kodiaks, I’m looking forward to a great and competitive game. Funny that the Kodiaks captain hadn’t mentioned this bounty to me when we sat next to each other at the captain’s meeting last night, but whatever. With any luck, the Kodiaks will have to pay for their own beer at the end of the night.
It’s finally playoff time! The schedule is nearly set for the first round. Tomorrow night (August 9), we’ll find out who the eighth seed is going to be, as the eighth place Pints and ninth place Pirates square off in their playoff qualifier. The winner of that game will play the Volcanoes in the first round of the playoffs on Sunday.
Our first round match in the single elimination tournament (win, you move on; lose, you’re out) will be against the Kodiaks on Sunday night at 8:15 PM. Having played each other four times, our two teams know each other well. Our team is also aware that we can’t take the Kodes for granted. They are a fast skating, determined team and are better than their record suggests. They also were none too pleased about their losses to us in our home-at-home series. Coincidentally, while the Kodiaks were our first opponent ever, they now also are our first playoff opponent ever. Funny how that worked out.
A full preview of our game against the Kodiaks can be found here.
While of course our own playoffs is the most intriguing to me, there’s another story in this post-season that I’m interested in as well: the Steelheads.
You may remember that prior to our game against them last night, some of the Volcanoes were threatening to “teach the Hogs a lesson” after we beat them the first time two months ago. Last night, we beat them again, this time in regulation. This was the first Volcanoes regulation loss all season, in the last game of the season too. Our team played very well.
So, lesson learned?
In a game that involved two of the top goalies in our league, the score was surprising. Thirteen goals were scored, and luckily, we got more than the other team. One of our players, Lyndsay Phillips, asked me before the game what our strategy was going to be, and I told him it would be to score more goals than the Volcanoes get on us. It sounded simple at the time.
We got up to a quick two goal lead, but the Volcanoes tied. When we did it again, the Volcanoes tied it again. That team made good use of the trailer on the play, hitting a player who would streak in when we were pinned deep in our zone and score. Somehow, by the end of the game, we were able to come out ahead. For both teams, it was the most goals against that we’ve allowed all season.
Last week was the final class of the shooting clinic, which I thought was great. We worked on slapshots, one-timers and breakaways. I think I made a lot of improvement in my shot, which is still not that great, and I would totally do that class again.
However, working on shooting is going to have to wait until another time. Tonight marks the beginning of the 4-week team concepts clinic:
“This clinic is focused on tactical concepts and positional play. Topics covered will include offensive tactics and attacking/passing combinations, breakouts, and regrouping in neutral and defensive zones. The class will be taught be Skatetown’s professional hockey instructors.”
I’m going to do this class too (which reminds me I still have to sign up!). I’ve asked my team to try and make this one as well, because I think the benefits we would get as a team from this clinic would increase exponentially with every additional teammate we can get to come out. You can only hope people can find the time, but obviously, we play hockey as recreation and it’s not always easy to come out on an extra night. I hope we get a good turnout from our team, because working on our positional play and tactics on the ice would really give us a good foundation going into the playoffs.
Speaking of the playoffs, they start on Sunday, August 12, but not before we close out the regular season against the Volcanoes this Sunday. Apparently they’re still smarting from their OT loss to us a couple of months ago (the Volcanoes have only lost two games, neither in regulation), and are talking about “teaching us a lesson”.
So, class will be in session tonight and on Sunday. I’ll be sharpening my pencils.
(A free roll of hockey tape if you’re the first to get the reference in the title.)
UPDATE: Vince Jones wins the free roll of hockey tape, identifying the reference I made to the band 38 Special and their song “Teacher Teacher”!
