Jan 31, 2015 | Todd McIver | 649 views
London Optimist Tourney Game 1 in the Books!
Team Blue traveled to London yesterday to play the first game in the Optimist Tournament. After recent games did not go so well, they were looking for retribution! The atmosphere in the dressing room before the game was light but all business!
As the game began, Blue looked a little pensive on the forecheck which allowed their opponents from North Toronto to set up an effective breakout. Call it cobwebs, call it laziness, call it confusion, but this was not the way Team Blue plays. Toronto would draw first blood 5 minutes into the game on some poor clearing attempts and 2 fly-by's at the blue line. As the coaches could sense the flatness, they preached to their charges to remember the systems we have been working on! With that, Blue walked down to the Toronto end, set up shop, and dominated 2 straight shifts. Their reward; the equalizer. 1-1.
In the second period, other than a lucky break from the refs for Toronto, it was all BLUE. Slick passing out of our end, defensemen making the safe play, forwards back checking and forechecking, and running our 1-2-2 defense had the North Toronto team at a loss. As the Team Blue players could sense, this stuff works!! Goal, goal, goal, goal,...
Blue created so many turnovers all over the ice, the Toronto coaches became agitated with their players! The game plan was working and being executed well and Blue was repeatedly awarded for it!
When the final buzzer sounded, the scoreboard would read 7-2 in favour of Team Blue. We have to remember not to chase the opponent like we did in the first period and to stick with our assignments like the second and third period and good things will continue to happen. Next up is a date with Erindale. Bring the pain BLUE!!!