Tournament Day 2... More Hockey Than Partying

I have to say, as much as I absolutely loved the lovely condo we stayed in in Florida, it was very nice to be in a hotel 5 minutes from the rink this time around. Game at noon? No problem, we'll head out around 11:15. Nice.

I think most of us were pretty jacked up for our first game of the day on Saturday. We were facing the Susan B's, a team that beat us 4-0 last year, and if I recall correctly, laid a hit on one of the girls that knocked her out of the rest of the game. We were definitely gunning for revenge in the form of a win. And did we ever get it. No, we didn't smoke them. We won 2-1, but that victory felt better than any "regular season" win I've been a part of. It was a very close game, and I had a brief moment of self doubt when the first goal was against us, as a result of error completely on my part; I had my stick blade angled wrong and I made the stop, but the puck deflected back into the net. GAH. That's up there with the sloppy 5-hole goal on the list of "goals that make me want to disappear under the ice".

Fortunately we got it back in the 2nd period, and managed to score again I think in the 3rd. I didn't count my shots, but there were a lot, and I played really really well. So well in fact that I was awarded the Cock. Yes, I brought Sidney the MVP Chicken along as a surprise for the team, and those that were at Nationals got a huge kick out of it when I took him out of my bag. He was re-named though. The night before, during our card game, no one could get his name right. Sheldon, Stanley, Seymour... Finally one of the young ones said "Look. Let's just call him Cock. It's a lot easier". Plus it had the added benefit of being really funny to say "Hey get your Cock off my bed", or "Sally's got the Cock tonight". #weare12

There was just enough time between that game and our next one (at 4:15) to come back to the hotel, shower, and attempt to take a nap. I ended up sucked into the book I was reading, because I was right at the end. Flipper sat at the desk messing around on her BB, because she said if she had lain down, it was going to be really hard to get her back up in time.

We had another very close game which we won 1-0. Because I was so exhausted when we got back, I was bad about writing down notes and now I don't remember much of it, just that it was another low shot game on my side- but definitely not as low as that first game. I probably saw 15 shots, tops.

Because the Lightning/Bruins series is absolutely making my head explode, I was very happy that we were done in time to be able to watch the game. Initially, I was extremely distressed to discover that there was no VS on the hotel TV channel list. Flipper took care of that with a quick call to the Applebees across the parking lot; they said they'd put the game on one of the TVs if we asked. Six of us headed over for some beer and "real food", and we watched the first two periods. Gionta182 left after the first period, and because I now have a nifty smartphone, I saw her status update about watching the game in the hotel.

What?!

Yeah, apparently the hotel DID have VS. That was all the convincing we needed to close out the tab and head back. Yeah. "The tab." We each had one beer. WOOO HOOO PARTY ANIMALS. We went back to the hotel and a few people joined us in our room for the last period, but I'd say almost all of us dozed off at some point. Welcome to the old ladies tournament. Two hockey games in 6 hours and we're done. We called it a night, knowing we had an early game at 10 a.m. and because of our so far undefeated record were guaranteed a spot in the championship game. Now that's the stuff of sweet dreams.