One thing that we are quickly learning about hockey in Florida
is that there is a lot of travel required to play games, so it only
makes sense to play two games after making one of these trips. Today
that meant a second scrimmage against the Golden Wolves squad.
Although the first scrimmage resulted in a loss, the play on the ice
was encouraging. The same cannot be said about the rematch (though,
to be honest, I am not 100% sure that this is the same Golden Wolves
team that the Everblades played earlier... it could be an A and B
team type of situation too). Drew struggled today, as he just didn't
have his feet under him. This seemed to be a team-wide problem, with
the exception of a couple players who did indeed play well.
Once again the Golden Wolves dominated the puck, and they outshot
the Everblades over the entire game. Although it took almost 7
minutes, it was the Wolves who broke through first, scoring on a
shot that slipped under the Everblades goalie's pads. A minute later
an Everblades tripping penalty resulted in a Wolves power play, and
they took advantage just 17 seconds in to take a 2-0 lead. The
Wolves gave the Everblades an opening, as they took an elbowing
penalty shortly after their own goal, and Drew was able to convert a
one-timer into a post to post power play goal to make it a 2-1 game.
Unfortunately that would be the lone bright spot for the Everblades,
as the Golden Wolves would shut them down from that point on. Two
late Wolves goals, both coming with 30 seconds of each other, blew
the game wide open, as the period would end with the Everblades down
by a 4-1 margin.
The second period was all Wolves, as they scored two goals early
to make it a 6-1 game. Two late Everblades penalties gave the Wolves
a two-man advantage, and they were able to convert with their 7th
goal of the game. Thankfully that was late in the period, and the
7-1 score would last until it ended.
The third period was dominated by the Wolves as well, as they
would score three more goals. The middle goal came on a 4v4
situation that came about after Drew took a 4 minute boarding
penalty after he got lazy and tired of hearing the Wolves players
mouth off. Thankfully the Wolves took a penalty themselves, so they
weren't able to take advantage of having an extra man, though they
would score while each team had a man in the box. Regardless, it
wasn't a smart play by Drew, and he has to think about his actions
while on the ice as it costs his team.
There wasn't many positives to take away from this game, aside
from Drew's goal. The team just looked tired, which is
understandable considering the fact that there was only 9 skaters
available, they had only had one practice together, and this was
their second game in less than three hours. Despite all that, this
one was just ugly... |