Week 16: Mark It Zero vs. Da Bulls

I don’t think anyone’s noticed, but I think we’ve ALWAYS been the home team. Crazy.

The playoff scenario has worked itself out so that out of our remaining opponents, Da Bulls, The Green Hornets, Da Bulls, and Lebowski (how’d this happen?). We only have to beat Da Bulls once out of the two remaining times we face them, assuming we win against the Hornets & Lebowski.

As I walked in to the locker room, I noticed an Aryan gentleman who seemed to be lost. I mouthed to Miller “WTF is he doing here?”

“Justin has food poisoning. That’s our goalie. His name’s Daniel.”

FOCK.

VS DA BULLS

This game stayed scoreless throughout the first, yet we were borderline dominating in most aspects. They only seemed to register one (quality) shot all period. I will always deem this a success.

In the early 2nd, I gained the blueline, stopped and wound up to take a slap shot. Looking up, I saw Miller streaking to the far post, so I shot-passed it right to him and he one-touch lifted it crossbar-down. This sent me into a zen-like state of satisfaction. Miller and I had been working on some form of that play in practices and it never fully materialized until then. So pumped.* 1-0.

Shortly afterwards, Derek had the puck on the left blueline and let loose a shot that was about 1 foot off the ground. It was a nice shot that found the twine. Derek didn’t pass for the majority of the game. But by the 3rd period, Miller gave him a piece of his mind and he started passing to spite him. Whatever works. 2-0.

The refs were horrible in this game and weren’t calling anything. I usually like refs that “let em play” but they weren’t whistling clear trips on both sides, and some obvious harassment went undisciplined. Derek hooked a kid juuust outside the blueline and the boneheaded refs decided to award the guy a penalty shot. He scored on it five-hole (Daniel’s pads were tiny)

The 4th goal came when both Ds were pinching. Aaron had taken the initial rush into their zone but Ben accompanied him. Aaron and I switched, and I was playing the left point. When Aaron’s rush was finished, he quickly made his way to the point, and we both motioned to switch back. It was then that I noticed Ben had possession and was heading behind their net, looking for an outlet pass into the slot. I was more than happy to dart right in. If he got the pass through, it was a definite goal. He threw it in front, and I shot it far glove side. That side was actually the goalie’s strong side all night, but this was through a screen and he had given me the whole right side to shoot at. 4-2 at that point.

They ended up scoring again, but we were able to hold them off in the final 3-4 minutes by playing very defensively the rest of the game.

Final score, 4-3. A huge win that pretty much locks up first place for us. Justin later told me that we only need one point to lock it up, but we have chances to get two points with a win against the Hornets or Lebowski. Nice Marmot and Da Bulls have two games left supposedly, and we have 4. How does this happen?

CLOSE CALLS

I’ve done away with this section, mostly because I’ve been writing posts w/ three games in em lately, and haven’t remembered the details. Not many close calls in this one, though on one shift I fed Ben and Steve with gift-wrapped passes on the right doorstep that didn’t get buried. On the Steve pass, I came out from behind the net looking at the point-men, and fed a no-look crafty/sneaky pass right across the crease, but Steve was handcuffed at that point and could only suffice to give the fast pass a poke. 

*And no credit. The assist went to Ben. He was the first to hug Steve. That’s the trick with these refs. Hug him first!