Winter Hockey - Game 25 and 26

On February 21st the Renegades played a game against the Hungry Beavers.  I was unable to make it to the game as I was attending the Exposure Photography Festival.  I had spares lined up to play for me as well as for some of the others that were unavailable.  I had 16 skaters and a goaltender lined up to play for this game.  But, it was one of those dreaded 7:00AM ice times and it turns out that about five of the guys that I had lined up, didn't show.  With a short bench, we were handed a tough loss by a final score of 11-5.

This past weekend we played a Saturday evening game against second place StAnkey.  These guys are a fairly average team with the exception of one guy, who plays at a level that is head and shoulders above everyone else in the division.  He doesn't even break a sweat and just kind of coasts around, a somewhat uninterested look on his face.  But, then when the game is on the line, he flicks a switch and kicks into full speed.  He is a very fast and strong skater with a hard and very accurate shot.  We were leading these guys 3-0 at the end of the second period, when the switch was flicked.  Before we knew it we were behind by a score of 4-3.  We pulled our goaltender and put on a final push right at then end of the game and managed to tie the score.  But, once we went into the overtime, the switch went on again and the winning goal was scored against us.

With these recent losses we are barely clinging to a playoff spot.  We are still in third place in the division, but there are couple of teams right behind us, trailing by only a point or two.  With four games remaining in the season, we need to win at least three of them to secure a playoff spot.

The league that we play in, the Edmonton Recreational Hockey League was sold this week to a competitor.  The ERHL is now being absorbed by the Capital City Recreational Hockey League.  The new larger CCRHL sounds like it will be bigger and better.  I am particularly impressed with the commitment shown by the new owner.  They are very hands on and have gone out of their way to contact all the new teams and answer any questions.  We had considered moving the Renegades to this league a couple of years ago, as there were some aspects of our league that weren't being managed as well as we thought they should be.  This will be good for our team and for adult recreational hockey in Edmonton.