The Blizzard entered the weekend with one thing in mind–win both games and secure our spot in the playoffs. We had to get past the Great Whites and Spiders to do it… and do it we did.
Friday we beat the Great Whites in a nail baiting 2-1 game. The Whites scored first, during the first period and then we were scoreless until mid-way through the third. I took advantage of a mistake by a Whites defensemen and got a goal to tie up the game. A few minutes later Mike put the second one in the net and then we spent about 4 minutes just defending the lead.
This afternoon we put away the Spiders by a score of 8-1. We had good offense here that danced around the defense pretty well and when the Spiders went on offense, our defense took care of business. We basically owned the game from beginning to end with this one and it was a strong way to end the regular season.
I enjoyed both games a lot. I was center on Friday. I struggled a bit in the first because my asthma kicked in and I’m out of medication right now (I have to take care of that before the ride!), but overall I did pretty well. Besides the goal, I also made some good defensive moves too so I was happy about that. The goal, of course, was very satisfying. Against the Spiders I was mostly on D. I was closely guarded on defense by Dennis, but I still managed to keep the puck in pretty well and when I did get caught I was able to haul back and get into place to work with Courtney to stop the Spiders offensive pushes.
The Blizzard start their playoff journey the Friday after Labor Day.
Meanwhile, this week also brought the end of my stint with the Wizards after six seasons. After a year (two seasons) of trying to filter out the personalities I don’t mesh with I’d decided I was going to move to alternate for the fall to give myself some distance from those people. After all, it’s a sizable time and cash commitment to play full time on two teams and if you’re not enjoying it the majority of the time it’s a bit of a waste. However, after last week’s thuggish turn against the Thundercats I decided it was time to exit the team since I found that game to be unacceptable. It’s one thing to play a tight defensive game, it’s another to decide to go on a penalty free-for-all. So for fall I’m a free agent in D7B and hopefully I’ll find a team that I can be an alternate on.