Two down, one... two?... to go

The down-time between games on Saturday: it's never enough time to really take a good nap, but it's just enough to make you wish you could. So here I am, blogging after a nice burger (protein!) and beer (carbs!) and the hotel restaurant.

Friday night's game was a very intense one. It was fast, and it got progressively chippier as the game went on. The other team scored first, a goal I really wanted back. It started out as a screen, but I yelled and Flipper moved out of the way just in time for me to pick up the shot, but I didn't get my pad down in time and it slipped underneath it. Very frustrating. That score held through the second, and most of the third, but fortunately The Mayor managed to poke in a rebound no one else seemed to see. Hallelujah. I would have felt like complete and total ass if we'd lost that game on that one goal. It would have completely sealed the "Friday night game curse" for me. But, as there are no ties in this tournament, we went straight to a shootout. No problem. I was definitely in the zone, and I knew I had it. I stuffed all three of their shooters, and our last shooter scored, off a series of sweet moves that had the goalie going too far to her left. It was an easy goal at that point.

I can't even express how relieved I was that we got that Friday night game monkey off our backs. And I was very happy to have had a hand in our comeback, after allowing that crappy goal.  I think I grinned all the way back to the hotel. After showers, we all met up in one of the rooms, which had  been upgraded to a suite, so there was plenty of room for us to all hang out. It was subdued revelry though, as we had a game at 11:00 the next day.

Which was today. Everyone was all pumped up, going into a Saturday game that actually meant something. (If you lose on Friday night, the chances of making the final game are virtually nill.) We wore our black jerseys again, since we felt so bad-ass in them the night before. We ended up winning, by a score of 2-0, but it was nerve-wracking for me. The play was in the other zone most of the time, and we kept getting close calls, but nothing was going in. Then they had a breakaway on me and I pulled one of those toe saves that everyone on the bench loves. After that, it was still pretty one-sided on our part but we still couldn't score. Finally, in the third period, we got one. And I had a sneaky feeling that we were going to need two, that something weird was going to happen, a strange bounce or completely bad luck. There was one save I made where the puck bounced up strangely, but fortunately it landed on the side of my pad, instead of out in the middle of the crease for anyone to pick off.

So, we have one more game this afternoon, and if we win, we have the final game tomorrow morning. Which is at some obnoxious time like 9a.m. But first we have to win this afternoon. The team we're playing lost to this morning's opponents 1-0, so it could be a pretty close game. And afterwards is the big party here in the hotel atrium. Flipper and The Mayor have a room right on the ground floor, with a sliding door opening onto the patio of the atrium, so we'll be in perfect position to refresh our beer without having to pay an arm and a leg at the bar. And there may even be some swimming, since the pool is open this year. I wonder if they'll have the mechanical bull again???? Beer, swimming, and bull-riding. What could possibly go wrong? ;)