Close Call in Ogden

We got back from Ogden at 4:30 this morning.  It was a fun trip.  Again, I think our team is coming a lot closer.  We're starting to pull pranks on each other at the hotels (which I won't go into detail about), we're singing together on the bus, and just having a lot of fun.  That's what a long hockey season is all about.  The close relationships with friends I've made throughout this junior experience are some that I will hold onto forever.  It's hard to describe how close a team gets throughout a season, but battling with a teammate for a whole season creates a pretty close friendship, plus all the time you spend together off the ice on road trips and in the locker room.

The first night in Ogden, we won 7-1.  We were up 6-0 in the first period, playing really well, then we started to let up and try to do things individually.  Plus, the backup goalie for Ogden played a solid game after coming in when the score was 6-0.  On Saturday night, I think we came into the game much too confident.  We played with little energy for the first two periods.  We didn't necessarily play badly, but we didn't play with heart, which is something you always have to do in the sport of hockey.  After the 2nd period, we found ourselves in a 2-1 hole.  Ogden's goalie was again playing lights out, and we were mostly playing a perimeter possession game.  We had to change those things in the 3rd period if we were going to win.  Quickly, we tied the game up 2-2.  Then, a few defensive breakdowns got us back down by a score of 4-2 with 7 minutes left.  I got the puck on the point and just tried to put a shot on net.  I managed to get it through a lot of sticks and skates and the puck went in right on the ice.  It wasn't the greatest shot, but the goalie didn't even see it.  Sometimes you just have to get it there.  Now, we were only down 4-3.  With under a minute left, we tied the score up 4-4.  Once we got the game to overtime, there was no way we were going to lose or let the game go into a shootout.  We scored the game winner, again, with under a minute left in the overtime period.  It was a pretty exhilarating finish!  A little too close against a 3-18 team...

Sometimes it's hard to win.  There are going to be some off nights.  That's just the nature of sports.  Sometimes things won't go your way.  Their second goal hit our goalie and went in off my wrist.  We had some bad bounces go against us last night.  That fact combined with the other team's hot goalie made for a dangerous game for us.  But it's really good to know now that we are a team that can come back no matter what the circumstances are.  We fought and battled and nothing was going to keep us from winning.