3 in a Row, go for 1 more, Go for it...

We have had a successful week and half now, after winning both games in the Alpes then finally putting Neuilly away with a win on Saturday night. The game got off to a bit of a strange start. Before I tell you about this, I must say, that in all my years of hockey, as a player and avid fan and student of the game, I have never seen anything like this happen...

So with the game only 2 minutes old, we are killing a penalty when Michal Petrak is sent in on a breakaway. Mike has a bit of a reputation for diving or embellishing, or in France we sometimes call it "Cinéma" or "Simulation."  So he is sent in alone and gets a little tug on the arm, affecting his shot enough to warrant a penalty shot, but not something that should send him flying into the end boards like a kamikaze fighter jet from WWII. 

But in a way that's what he was, because he drew a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct for the embellishment and therefore was sitting in the penalty box and unable to take his penalty shot. After last Tuesday's shootout win in Morzine, our coach went with the hot hand and picked me to take the penalty shot. I wasn't even on the ice, so not sure if that was allowed but the officials didn't think to take the numbers of the players on the ice because nothing like this has ever happened before. Maybe never in the game of hockey???Moving on....so I jumped over the boards and without thinking, took off down the ice, grabbed the puck and was looking 5 hole like I shot in Morzine. I gave a head fake and the 5 hole closed up pretty quickly so a quick fake to the backhand to get the goalie moving, then I slid the puck into the open side on my forehand. A great start for us as we are 7-2 when we score the first goal of the game.

The game stayed close the whole way through, trading goals back and forth on bad defensive errors, and even scoring into our own net. Since we won and this player made up for his mistake by scoring his second goal of the game shortly afterwards, I have to mention how Ilpo Salmivirta, in his first game back from injury, threw the puck into our own net. We were on the power play when Neuilly blocked my shot and came 2 on 1 down the ice against me. The shot was taken and goaltender Stan Petrik made the save but the puck flew up in the air, and with nobody around him, Ilpo attempted to catch the puck but from what I understand, baseball is not a very popular sport in the Scandinavian countries and our Finnish Flash tossed it right into the net.

But like I said, he got it back, ripping a one timer top corner and we sailed to a 6-4 victory. Now with Grenoble in our sights, as we will make the trip out there on Saturday, we have a week to prepare. We had a team workout this morning, focusing more on some core, agility and quickness, then a few of us went to the gym in the town for an additional workout, more focused on upper body (chest/back) and a hard core/abs complex to finish off.  The team is rolling with 3 wins in a row, and we will look for our 4th. Like the old commercials said "It's 3 in a row, go for one more, go for it, CONNECT FOUR!!!"