November 12, 2018

So Clutch


Another win in the books for the Puck Hawgs.

Six games in a row so far this season after dropping our first and this one wasn't easy. I came out that night feeling pretty confident about my game but just as quickly we were down 4-1 early in the second period after a lucky deflection, a partial screen, a break away and one other that I'm sure was my fault.

It didn't help things as I watched the opposing goalie all but standing on his head to make save after save. He ended up seeing about 50 shots that night.

So there I stood hanging my head in self-loathing about my own play when my guys finally broke through and scored a couple of goals to get the game close. I didn't have a lot of work in the third despite a couple of penalty kills.

With about 5 minutes left we tied things up and I knew there would be a big push coming. I tried to buckle down. With a minute and change to go there was a scramble behind the net when the puck came out to the slot and an opposing player got half a blade on it. The puck was headed to the far side corner when I extended my leg and just managed to get a toe on it with my D man right there to sweep it out of danger. That's as close as it gets so it was off to a shoot out.

Some nights you get a chance to redeem yourself and come up with a couple of stops that can make you forget the softies and the bad bounces. This was that night as I was able to come up with two good saves and my guys scored two to make the comeback complete.


After the game I had an exchange on Facebook with one of my excellent defenseman who reminded me that even if you, by all rights, have given a game away you can still get that win and the rest will be long forgotten.

Defenseman: You better take credit for shutting the door late in the game, and during the shootout.
Me: It's hard for me and maybe most goalies to see the good for all the bad but I am really happy how I played the shootout because you guys did all the work to get us back into the game and scored 2 of 3 in the shootout. Glad I could do my part.
Defenseman:I think all goalies are that way, which is why it’s the D’s responsibility to hit them over the head with it :)
Clutch? I'm not ready to say that.