I’m liking the progression of these tournament posts – there is a certain inevitability about them…at least so far.
After the surprisingly easy drive to Peterborough for the 11pm start, London Seniors were faced with their typical roster issues – a couple of injuries, a couple of late regrets…9 runners…sigh… New pinnies were distributed and we looked pretty impressive on the floor, at least until the first face off whistle. A fairly nondescript game against Halton Hills ending with a 2-8 loss. With a few additional (key) runners the score would have been much closer and a 2nd 2015 victory over Halton could have been possible (maybe).
After much deliberation and strategy discussions after the Friday night game, we were on the floor Saturday noon against the RezDogs. After falling behind early, London came back strong and was coasting with a 6-2 lead late in the 3rd. What COULD go worng? RezDogs score 1 to make it 6-3 with 3 minutes left…no problem, then another with about a minute and a half left, 6-4, still no problem…right? A couple of stops, a couple of loose balls and London has the ball with 30 sec left and an unnamed player (I promised Mark I wouldn’t reveal his identity) runs up the boards, in full control, no one pressing and instead of passing the ball to kill time just rolls it along the boards. Wait, what…. check the point spread and betting records! RezDogs come back hard, shoot, but, surprisingly, the save is made (or they hit the goalie…whatever), less than 15 sec left, goalie in control of the ball behind the net, …waits 5 sec and lofts the ball to an open player up the floor …. and passes it right to the RezDogs player 10 ft in front of an empty net who makes no mistake and lobs it in to the centre of the netting …sigh…. 6-5 with 7 sec left. With the JKOW injured, RezDogs win the faceoff easily, press and get another shot but hit the goalie stick…barely. This time no mistake and the clock runs out for a London win, Werewolves 6 – RezDogs 5. Nothing if not exciting. Probably should have retired and gone home at that point in time.
Unfortunately 2 more games had to be played resulting in losses of 3-8 to Brampton and 5-14 to Niagara. Still, 3 wins for the season so far – haven’t seen that in recent memory. Next up is the Fergus tournament July 17-19 weekend when we should have our full roster back and hopefully make a stab at wins 4,5 and maybe even 6 and 7 – hope springs eternal!
G2