We Never Quit

Last night we played host to one of the top teams in the league as we faced off against last season's Coupe de France Champions Grenoble. In our team's history, we have never beaten Grenoble and as we went down 4-1 and 5-2 during this game, history was well on its way to repeating itself. I wish I could continue to write a great ending to this story but we did in fact lose the game, but not before a courageous comeback by our team to force overtime.

Facing off against a team like Grenoble, for us to win, we would have to play a perfect game, that meant no mistakes on our part. For the most part, we played well and often carried the play spending much time attacking around their net. An area where we struggled was not being able to clear the puck out of our own zone, resulting directly in 2 of Grenoble's 4 goals in the first period alone. We never quit and would inch our way back as Michal Petrak scored a great shorthanded goal to make it 4-2 but on that same power play, their sniper Martin Massa responded, scoring on a 3 on 1 break to make it 5-2 with a high shot to the blocker side.

As we continued to chip away, and with the score now 5-4 and less than 2 minutes remaining in the game, we were given a 5 on 3 power play. Guillaume Chassard fanned on his shot and it seemed as if time stood still, (if you can image the TV Show "Saved by the Bell" when Zack would say timeout! Then manipulate things in his favor) this allowed Ilpo Salmirvirta to deposit his second of the night into an open net as the French National team's goaltender Eddy Ferhi looked on. Moments later, still on the power play, Ilpo went in alone on a breakaway but was hulled down, resulting in a penalty shot! How much more exciting can this get, tied 5-5 and we have a penalty shot with 1 minute remaining. If Ilpo scores, that would be a hat trick for him, his 3rd of the night, but with the bad ice late in the game his was stopped by Ferhi.

The way the game played out in the overtime, you would think the referee must have had prior engagements and wanted the game to end sooner than later. As a Grenoble player was carrying the puck in the neutral zone along the boards, another player collided with Ilpo and tripped, the referee out of the corner of his eye sees their forward fall and signals a penalty that was completely away from the play and one that should never be called. Especially in overtime! Those are the french referees for you, as I have not even mentioned how the linesmen love to kick guys out of the face offs with their trademark pump fakes to catch the center man cheating.

They eventually scored on us on the power play to end the game, Stan Petrik played a great game for us and made some key stops when he had to. Our fans (Supporters) were incredible, you were like a 6th player for us on the ice. After the game we went out as a team to Le Wellington to have a drink together. I believe it is important to stay together as a team, win or lose because this is a long season and we have another big game on Tuesday, so it is time to forget about this game and try to get a birth into the 2nd round of Coupe de la Ligue.

As many have requested, I will begin writing some of my blogs in french as well, it will not be nearly as detailed as my french in the written form is at the level of an 8 year old, but I will do my best and get someone to edit it! Thanks again to Les Supporters for making lots of noise and giving us that extra energy in the game to help us comeback. We hope to hear you all cheering loudly again on Tuesday!