This weekend was the State Championship tournament for recreational hockey. Every recreational hockey team in New Mexico comes together to compete to see who is "the best" in our state. It's a really big deal.
This year, we (Taos) hosted the tournament (YAY! We didn't have to travel!). So we also got to set up the game times. Our rec team is pretty good this year, but so is Los Alamos. Both of us are about equal, and Taos and Los Alamos have always been rivals in everything each town competes in, whether it's hockey, football chess or whatever. As we're doing up the schedule for this tournament a few weeks ago, we thought that probably we and Los Alamos would be in the Championship game for the trophy. So we set the schedule up for both of us to play our first game against each other. Each team would play four games, and the two teams with the most wins would go to Championship.
We won all four of our games. Los Alamos won all their games except the one they played against us, and it was only by one exciting and tense point! An exciting game, to be sure! Both us and Los Alamos "creamed" all the other teams we played. :)
So yesterday afternoon was our Championship game. Many of the other teams who didn't make it to the Championship hung around to watch the game. The air was thick with the excitement of who would win. It could go either way, everyone thought.
I planted myself firmly in the bleachers at the center line. I had taken special care to make sure I didn't "jinx" our team by wearing the same clothes and doing the same thing I did the days previous. I had my horn and kleenex firmly in my hands. I discovered that only one other Taos parent was in the bleachers with me; we were surrounded by Los Alamos parents, which means we really would have to compete to be heard as we yelled! We didn't care; we wanted to be in the center of the rink.
Now, Los Alamos has one really awesome player on their team, Jared. He can get incredible speed up in a matter of a split second, is awesome at deking and puck handling, and has a slap shot from even the center line that could knock someone out. He's pretty accurate, too.
On our team, we have my very own Derek. He has incredible speed and deking and puck-handling skills, and an incredibly accurate shot, although not nearly as hard and fast as Jared's. He's the only one on our team that has the speed to catch Jared. And Derek and Jared are friends, as they have played together on the state team, so they both know each other and what they will do on the ice.
Our coach decided to "just play hockey" and not have someone "shadow" Jared -- which means he decided to not dedicate a player on our team to "stick like glue" to Jared so he can't move.
It was obvious that the Los Alamos coach decided to have someone at all times shadow Derek, usually at least two kids, sometimes three.
Yes, both Derek and Jared can easily take the puck down the ice by themselves and score. Almost no big deal to either of them.
The game started. Within minutes of the first period, Jared made the first goal for Los Alamos. We fought hard, and within another couple of minutes, one of our players managed to score. We were now tied.
The game dragged on at this tie score through the rest of the first period, the second period and on into the third period. Both teams fought hard to try to get a puck in the goal. Both Derek and Jared finally left their teams behind to focus on getting a puck in for their teams. Our team was somewhat successful at shutting Jared down, although he got a lot of shots off on goal -- missing or our awesome goalie stopping them. Derek, on the other hand, was still dealing with his shadowers. There were so many times he had three kids at once checking him before he could get complete control of the puck.
We were down to about 12 seconds left in the game, and the score was still tied. All of us parents were now talking about who would score in overtime, or if we would have to go to a shoot-out. What were the rules for a tie game? We didn't know. We parents were now set on overtime or a shoot-out, when the puck dropped for the last time in the game.
Derek won the face-off, successfully getting the puck to a defenseman, and started skating up the ice with one of his wingers keeping up with him. The defenseman passed it up to Derek. Jared was now on Derek getting ready to check him. Derek braced for the check and counter-checked at the point of Jared's check, sending Jared to the ice and successfully putting him out of commission to keep up. Derek had several players on him, so he passed to his winger. He and his winger were both still skating up the ice, crossing into the end zone together. His winger now had Los Alamos players on him, so he passed back to Derek, freeing himself of players for a split second. As the Los Alamos players crowded in on Derek, he quickly passed it back to his winger who was now deep in the corner. His winger again passed a perfect pass back to Derek, who was now standing directly in front of the goal. Derek caught the puck, then easily flipped the puck into the goal -- SCORE!!
The clock read 1.2 seconds left in the game!!!! THEY WON!!!
I must say, all of us parents (Los Alamos, too) were all screaming and yelling and about having a heart attack! It was so incredibly miraculous! I was about knocked out of the bleachers will all the high-fives and hugs from everyone at this incredible goal which made Taos the State Champions!
But it just goes to show all you hockey players out there -- never ever give up, even when there's only seconds left on the clock!
Derek is fifth from the right.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment