Summer Season Game 6 - Victory in Defeat

It's late, and I've just come home from an 8-5 loss. Given my previous insecurities about my goals-against, you'd think I'd be off moping in a corner somewhere. But instead I'm bouncing off the walls. I drove home with a big grin on my face as I replayed the game in my head. Yes, we lost. But we lost to a team that until tonight had only had 5 goals scored against them all season. We lost to a team that was well-matched to ours, and it was a very good game. The score doesn't reflect reality, as we had several bad bounces (and one major screwup on my part, but that was negated by a major screwup on the other goalie's part, so that makes me feel a little better).

But the gleaming gold cap in my toothy grin tonight was the save I made on the penalty shot late in the third period. At first, I thought I was the reason for the call. As an opponent skated in, I went out to poke the puck and we both fell. What I didn't see was one of our D hook him from behind. The ref made the call, gestured for a penalty shot, and skated past me and said "you have to stay in your crease until he touches the puck". I thought about that for a minute and as the other team was choosing their shooter, I skated over to the ref to plead my case- the other goalie had come all the way out to the blue line to play a puck (and got burned but that's besides the point). "I mean for the penalty shot. The call was for the hook from behind," he said. In the back of his mind he was probably thinking "settle down, Beavis".

I think the other team purposely didn't choose their best player for the shot, since they were already ahead 8-5 with just over a minute left. Regardless of who the shooter was, I'm proud of my save. I really waited him out, and at the last second when he tried to deke around me, I got my glove out just in time to completely rob him. Right now I can't think of a better sound than the thunder of my teammates' sticks against the boards after I made that save.

I can't wait for next week.