Summer Hockey - Game Ten

The Renegades played a game last Friday against the Ice Kings.  It was a real challenge to get a roster together for this game.  At one point just a day before game time I only had 10 skaters and no goaltender.  Between myself and some of the other guys on the team, we must have put the call out to at least 20 backup goaltenders.  Eventually one of the guys found a goalie.  He was an older guy, with really dated equipment, that hadn't played in a couple of years.  I kept working the phone and the e-mails and eventually I thought I had filled the roster.  But come game time, things went sideways.

Two of the guys I had lined up didn't show, so we ended up short for skaters and had to shuffle the lines and defense pairs.  Then mid-way through the second period, after the Ice Kings had lit up our backup goalie for five goals, his skate broke.  The plastic boot of his old goalie skate shattered and he could not continue.  We scrambled and eventually talked the goalie from the team that was playing after us to finish the game for us.  But, it took him at least 15 minutes to get dressed and while that was happening, under league rules, the clock had to be run down.  By the time he was dressed and ready to play the second period was over and we were starting the third.  Two minor penalties, one to me and one to another of our defense ran out during that time, but we were assessed a delay of game penalty when we resumed play so one of our guys had to return to the box.  We played a lot better after that and with better goaltending actually made a game of it.  But we ended up on the short end of a 5-3 score.  As a result of our recent losses, and some better play by a couple of our opponents, we now find ourselves in fourth place in our division.

I read my guys the riot act about attendance and commitment and expect to have a full roster out for our next game on Tuesday.  Hopefully we can put an end to the losses and patch together a winning streak going into the playoffs.  There are five games left in the regular season.