Huge Weekend

Heading into the month of December we were 2-4-0 on the season, not exactly where we envisioned ourselves when training camp broke almost a month ago. This month we play the 1st place Detroit Dragons 8 times and that series started this weekend with 2 games at home. Our team has really been coming together lately and we are starting to show signs that we will emerge as a championship contender in this league. The young guys are starting to learn how to play the pro style effectively and that is huge for us considering we have 14 1st year professionals. I've played on teams with 5 or 6 but 14 is a huge number.

Friday night we beat the Dragons 9-2 in a game where it seemed like we could do no wrong. Three seconds into the game Mason Cossette, a 21 year old from Texas, fought Jason Simon of the Dragons. Simon has years of pro experience, he is a tough guy and plays that role to a T, he also has played in the NHL when he was younger. Mason has been out of the line up since our opening night loss in Detroit and was itching to get back into a game for 3 weeks now. Mason won the fight pretty convincingly and broke Simon's nose in the process, 12 seconds after the fight we scored. Talk about good early momentum. We popped home 3 more goals in the opening stanza and were up 4-0. Our momentum carried into the 2nd and we scored 3 more goals making it 7-0 after 2 before Detroit scored 30 seconds into the 3rd period. Our first line of Mike Podelnyk, Nigel Hawrilyiw and Mark Allen were absolutely dominant. My line of Steve Koich, Brett Riley and myself factored in for 3 goals also. It was the best game we played all season by far.

Last night we went back to the rink to find out that Detroit had brought in a new goalie and only had 12 skaters to dress. I don't know if we thought it would be another landslide or what but we broke down in our defensive zone and our forecheck wasn't pretty either, but we managed to walk out of the building with an 8-7 overtime loss. Taking 3 out of 4 possible points on the weekend and making a statement to the league that we will be there in the end.

Earlier tonight I was watching a video with Nigel about the Muskegon Fury's league championship run in 2004. We saw how hard those guys battled through the playoffs to win the United Hockey League and what they went thru. The sacrifices, the injuries, the bad days, the good days. The peaks and valleys, as their head coach put it in the locker room after they won it all. It made us realize why we play hockey, being hundreds of miles away from home, missing your family, your girlfriend, your buddies that you grew up with. It is all worth it to win that coveted championship at the end of the long journey. It's why we play the game. When it comes down to it we are a team of brothers, 18 guys, who 2 months ago didn't know each other have now come together to form a team. We go to battle every night together and in the end we all want to be there together raising the trophy as league champions.