Renegades - Summer Hockey - Game 7

The Renegades played last Thursday, on June 16th, against a team called the Shootin' Blanks.  Our regular goalie was still recovering from a minor knee injury sustained about a week and a half prior, so we had a backup playing for us.  Mark is a pretty respectable goalie and did a decent job stepping in for us.  The Shootin' Blanks quickly scored 4 unanswered goals and we found ourselves down by a 4-0 score relatively early in the game.  But then something changed... we bore down, dug in, and started to not only play better, but also to defend our end of the rink.  The first goal we scored, with less than 5 minutes remaining in the first period, not only broke the shutout, but also seemed to break the ice.  We went on to score five more unanswered goals and found ourselves leading by a score of 6-4 late in the second.  The Shootin' Blanks got one back later in the second to make it close.  We came back late in the third to add an insurance marker and found ourselves ahead by a 7-5 score, with less than 6 minutes remaining.  

Late in the game, one of my defenseman caught his skate in a rut in the ice as he was fighting for possession of the puck against one of the opposing players.  It was a clean and innocent play but his body got spun around and his foot didn't follow him.  He went down in agony, with his skate pointing off at a stomach churning angle.  The game was stopped and we had to call in an ambulance.  It took a while for them to arrive.  Steve was taken to the Royal Alexandra hospital where he eventually had his dislocated ankle re positioned, and underwent surgery for a broken fibula.  He is home and resting now, but will not be able to get back on skates for at least 4 to 6 months.  We wish him all the best.

We were awarded the win given the fact that we were leading by two goals when the game was called.  Not exactly the way that we hoped to win and we would much rather have lost and not had our player sustain the injury.  In any event this puts us, at least temporarily, into first place in our division with a record of 5 wins and 2 losses.  We have two games coming up this week so we will see if we can hold that position.