I was looking forward to this tournament with a lot more anticipation than some of the others. I think it might be because it was our last one of the "season", and because I knew my sister was bringing her family to come watch me play. We also had the added excitement of facing the ringer team from our last tournament, the team we were supposed to have played in the championship game that was cancelled because of compressor malfunction.
Most tournaments we've done have had games stretched over two and a half days; Friday through Sunday. This one squeezed the same number of games into a much shorter time span. Our first game was on Saturday at 1pm, and our final (fourth) game ended up being at 3:30 pm on Sunday. There's something about the compressed schedule that made it a little more exciting as well, although it was also exhausting. It's Tuesday and I'm still recovering.
I just had a good feeling about this tournament from the start, despite the fact that it changed from a "C/D" level of competition to a "B/C/D" level. It seemed odd to all of us that they'd combine such a wide range of skills, but I think it was because they didn't have enough teams to create more than one division. Fortunately we had quite a decent mix on our roster as well, and thought we'd be pretty competitive. I think we were all looking forward to our first game, against the "ringer team" that had beaten us 9-1 in the previous tournament. Going in with a few ringers of our own, we figured we had a chance to at least give them a better fight this time around. Even so, I think we mostly expected to lose, and decided we might as well wear our red jerseys and get some use out of them.
Color us all kinds of surprised when we ended up beating them 4-3. It was a good close game, and in all fairness, they didn't have the exact same team and neither did we. They were missing one or two of their flashy end-to-enders, and we had some reinforcements from the C team. It was a good game, and we were elated to not only have beaten them, but have gotten the stink off our red jerseys.
For our next game, the second of the day, we were up against a team we'd played last year. I was looking forward to this game almost as much as I was to the first game, because for this one we were going to have fans. My sister and brother in law live about an hour from where we were playing, and they brought my nieces (ages 7 and 4) to see us play. I was ecstatic. I was even happier when we scored first, since given the wide range of competition level I wasn't sure if we'd be blown out in front of my family or not. That first goal took a little tiny bit of pressure of me (in my own mind). Unfortunately, they scored three quick ones right after that. I'm pretty sure all three of them were by the same player, one who apparently had a knack of making me look like a traffic cone. Very frustrating goals. It became apparent very quickly during the game that the average age of these players was somewhere around 18, at a very generous guess.
Toward the end of the 3rd period the score was 5-6, and they took a delayed penalty. I sprinted (as much as a goalie can sprint...) to the bench and the door was barely closed before everyone erupted in cheers. I whooped and hollered and I think I may have actually jumped up and down a little. Nothing like a tying goal with about a minute to go! I went back out to my net, but we couldn't manage a complete comeback. Still, a tie against what amounted to a U19 team felt like a pretty sweet win to all of us.
When I came off the ice to greet my family, my nieces were shy about coming up to me. "Go give her a hug", my sister prompted. I knelt down to make it easier, and the older one observed "it's really hard to hug you!", her arms barely making it around my chest protector. They were very enamored with my gear, and when I asked to pose for a picture with them, they insisted on each holding one of my sticks. My brother in law took what I think might be the most adorable picture on the entire planet:
The five of us went out for a bite to eat afterwards, and it was good to see them all, even if the girls were a little punchy due to it being WAY past their bedtime. But they weren't the only ones staying up late. After my sister dropped me back at the hotel, I figured @lct29 and I would call it a night pretty early, given our hectic day and our 9:00 ice time the next morning. I should have known it wasn't going to work out that way. Naturally we all ended up crowded into one room, yapping and laughing and playing drinking games. We had our college girls with us again, and they obliged me when I requested we play the game they taught us at the last tournament. Only about half of us played, but the other half had just as much fun watching us make idiots of ourselves. By 1:30 though I was ready to go, knowing we had to be up early the next day. I think @lct29 was ready way before that, but she waited for me to finish the game. (For the record, we have discovered that we make excellent roommates, and I think it's a pretty much foregone conclusion that if the QCats are on the road, we're rooming together. Yay for awesome roomies.)
Once again, I've rambled on far too long, so I will stop here and save the last two games for another post. Here's a teaser for you: our final game was against the "U19 team", which generated possibly the best locker room quote in the history of tournaments.
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