Friday 16 January 2009

Shootout Win

As we now look ahead to tomorrow's game against Neuilly, I would first like to recap what happened on Tuesday night in Morzine. Like on Saturday against Mont Blanc, we departed from the rink here in Epinal at 9:30am. We stopped again at the same restaurant in Switzerland to have our pre game meal before continuing.  

What a difference it makes visiting Morzine in January as opposed to October like we did last year.  Now, the prime ski season, the village was filled with tourists, most speaking English and hailing from England or Ireland. Since we had so much time before the game, we walked around for a while and a few of the guys even stopped for a coffee at the Dixie Bar (Irish Pub).  Most of the people spoke English and even the servers struggled when one of our French players tried ordering a coffee. Though in France, in that place, French was a foreign language. After spending 15 euro for 7 saucissons in St. Gervais, it was only fitting to continue with the trend and add some great cheese to the mix. Here I spent roughly 20 euro on 750g of Comté and 500g of Tomme de Savoie!  I must maintain some control here as I could get pretty fat if I don't eat this stuff in moderation.

Since we eat around 1pm, I usually pack a few sandwiches to hold me over until after the game, but this time it was not enough and I found myself very very hungry at the rink. And to make things even worse, as I was warming up in the stands, doing some stair runs, there was a group of about 35 kids on a field trip, sitting together in a section, waiting for the game to start. No big deal right?  Well I did not mention that they were all eating Croque Monsieurs!!!  I could just see the melted ham and cheese and I actually had to leave the section and continue my pre game warm up elsewhere because I nearly snatched one right of out an unsuspecting French kid's hand. 

In the game, my hunger still very present, was now channeled to wanting to win, instead of wanting to eat as many grilled ham and cheese sandwiches as I could.  We were down 3-1 in the third period but we still believed we could win.  We got an early power play and I was able to get us to within a goal when my wrist shot from the blue line went off the post and off the goalie's back and trickled in. Petrak tied it for us with about 4 minutes left to play in the game off a scramble in front. Then 10 minutes of overtime settled nothing so we were headed for a shootout....

We shot first as our captain Jan Plch was stopped on a shot to the blocker side, then goalie Eero Vare made a huge save, doing the splits to stop the Morzine player. Chassard was our next shooter and he made a great move to his backhand and scored, putting us up 1-0 in the shootout, but their next shooter scored tying it 1-1. I was called upon to shoot 3rd and I made no mistake ripping one 5 hole giving us the lead and putting lots of pressure on Morzine's final shooter. Eero made the stop and our comeback was complete! 

Being in the Alpes again, I thought for sure Tartiflette, it is cold, it is the season, here we go!  But no, it was a steak with a pepper sauce and fries. A pretty good meal, something that you might get at the Keg Steakhouse back home, so I was delighted to eat that.  

Tomorrow night is big though, we have lost 3 times to Neuilly (twice in coupe de la ligue, once in regular season), as they sit at the bottom of the standings, but coming off a close 3-2 loss to Rouen. We have to score a few early and break their spirits to earn the win.

On a side note, yesterday was my sister Elise's 39th Birthday!!! Happy Birthday Lise, love you!!!

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