January 18, 2010

On Tuesday we went to play Johnson and Wales in a non league tilt in RI - a real old barn if there ever was one - the first period was not bad, we scored on a PP at 15:01, Diaco from Plimmer and Korchin, and that was it for the period ----- we got out of the gate fast in the second period scoring on another PP at 0:59, Cooper from Plimmer and Derosa, followed up by a third PP goal at 3:58 Amico unassisted, got kind of a gift here - J and W came back to narrow the gap at 17:05 but we responded at 18:45, Derosa from Cooper and Plimmer to keep the margin at three ----- in the third period J and W were not going to go away scoring at 0:45 and right back in the game - from here on in it was "Casey bar the door" - as Coach Murphy said, one of the most bizarre periods of hockey he has been part of the past few years - 13 penalties, 4 on 3, 5 on 4, 6 on 4 - whatever it takes for us to make third periods something to remember including another penalty at 17:19 - anyway we escaped with a 4-2 win

On Friday up at Hamilton it was a different story - though in the end the shots were fairly close and they had 5 more penalties than we did we were never in the game - 0-5 after one period and 0-7 halfway through the game - we did come back with three goals in the third period (John, Plimmer and Diaco - assists to Fitoussi, Metcalfe, Amico, Barker and Walker) but it was far too little far too late - the only bright spot was Jay McNamara's play in the net the second half of the game - other than that we need to put it behind us

Over to Amherst on Saturday afternoon to meet a very fine skiing Amherst club - this was a very high paced game from the get go - in the first period both goalies played very well, every player worked and worked but nobody scored - this continued into the second period, a penalty here and there, but more good play at both ends of the ice - going into the third period it seemed like the playoff game last year, we got some good chances, Amherst had quite a few good chances but it was anyone's game ----- we played well for the first half of the period but started to struggle a bit as the period wore on, the effort was still there but we could not muster much in there end, plus they also have a very good goalie --- they finally crack the scoring column at 15:18 and follow it up on a PP at 18:09 - we pull the goalie as is usual in most of our games that one of the teams will pull the goalie at the end - the final remained at 2-0

Tough weekend - always a difficult road trip particularly if you go to Hamilton first - however we must look ahead, we are in the middle of the pact in the league and have all tough games in front of us - on the other hand we have played a lot of tough games and have fared pretty well

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