Game six

Played Game 6 last night. Here’s how it went down:

Home – 90 minutes to game time, and I’m rethinking my meal decisions throughout the day. The late lunch of leftover curry followed by an early dinner of barbecued hot dogs wasn’t wise. Both delicious, but maybe not on game day. I’m older now and I have a delicate constitution. My pre-game nap is also shortened to 20 minutes, but we have enough guys on the bench tonight so maybe I can snooze between shifts. Doubtful, but dare to dream.

Change Room – Why are these rooms so damned hot? We are literally 10 feet away from a giant block of ice and the temperature differential feels like 20 degrees. Sweat is pouring off us. Putting our gear on qualified as the warm-up. It’s gross and it *almost* makes me wish it were winter. Almost.

1st Period – We go to the bench and the lights are off in the arena. No one is around. Are we in the right place? Someone calls the rink manager over and he switches them on. Great, so we have to play tonight…I mean GREAT, we get to play! The period starts off well – we go 1-1 in the early minutes and it feels like an even match. It’s shaping up to be my favourite game so far. We end up in a little battle in front of our net. I lose the puck in the tangle of skates in front of me and the next thing I know the ref stops play. I’m confused, thinking they scored. The ref points to me and says I almost took out my own tendy. Whoops! I lifted the back of my stick playing the puck and took his helmet right off so cleanly he didn’t know what was happening. He was fine.

2nd Period – Back and forth describes this period. We take a huge lead and go up 6-1. We’re moving the puck well, taking our time with our passes, and peppering their goalie. Everything is clicking tonight. They’re trying hard but our defense is on point and our forwards are doing an amazing job of potting shots.

3rd Period – Mirrors the 2nd period. Everyone is playing hard. It’s quite the change from our last full season two years ago when we were at the very bottom of the pile. That season we ended with 4 wins and 27 losses. It sucked a lot, but back to the game. We win cleanly with a final tally of 7-2, and everyone is pumped. We’re now 4 and 3 for the summer – not a bad turnaround.

Post-game – Adult pops in the parking lot. The designated beer buyer brought Kokanee, so we’re feeling a bit spoiled. Usually, it’s some warm-ish horse pee like Coors Light or Lucky Lager. We’re carrying on, having some laughs and then we spot a police car cruising the parking lot. And just like that we’re 14 again. Beers are being poured out. Guys scramble to hide behind vehicles, and the two-four on the tail gate disappears so quickly into the truck bed it left burn marks behind. We are so plainly obvious it’s ridiculous. After a few minutes, the cruiser drives off. We spend the next half hour reminiscing about our misspent youths; of getting caught buying beers underage, of growing up in small towns and being messed with by bored cops, and of pathetic attempts trying to get into bars with fake IDs. Stories big and tall of our rites of passage and a lot more laughs are shared. It was another great night with this group of jokers.