It was a three games, two rinks and one tired mama kind of Sunday.  Our day started with a relatively early U16 game against Panthers Red at 10:15.  Concurrently, I was at Glacier in Pompano for the Mayor’s 11:30 schedule.  Of course, you have to be there an hour earlier, so you’re leaving the house a lot earlier than you’d think to get to a 11:30 am game.  This is not aided by the fact that I must have my pre-game Dunkin’, so I built-in additional time for that pit stop.

 

Goalielocks had a great first game earning a shut out!  I don’t have many details on the game other than we won, TK had a hat trick and Goalielocks had shutout.  Oh the hardships of the divide and conquer life.  While Goalielocks and his team were marching to victory, the Mayor’s team was off to a somewhat shaky started giving up a goal on the first shift.  Fortunately, they recovered and both goalies closed the door.  The Mayor ended up scoring the third goal off the goalie’s back.  As a goalie mom, I’m not sure how I feel about that, but as the mom of a forward I was quite pleased.   Their team ended up with a decisive 4-1 victory.

It wouldn’t be February, however, if you weren’t stalking the pointstreak page for all the results in your kids’ divisions.  Goalielocks’ team entered the day in a must win situation. We all were texting all of our contacts to figure out how the games on the West Coast had gone to see our team’s situation shifted.  It didn’t.  This made tonight’s game a playoff game.  Whatever team won the 4:15 pm game would qualify for states.  As a goalie mom with a hyperactive thyroid and a propensity to freak out, this isn’t the game I was looking for tonight.  Thank god for beta blockers.

 

Our squad came out firing on all cylinders.  They were playing physical, moving the puck and it paid off midway through the first period with a nice goal by MG.  There were plenty of penalties throughout the first and second period with the game calming down somewhat in the third period.  With almost a minute left in the second period, the Hawks put in a shorty on a 2-1 breakaway.  There went my heart rate marching right back up to obscene levels.

Goalielocks’ teammate put in a beautiful goal on a breakaway early in the third.  Ah, yes sweet respite, my heart rate backed off some.   With less than 3 minutes left, the other team pulled the goalie.   There went the heart rate. We ended up getting another penalty, so the last two minutes were played 6 on four.  Oh sweet mother of god, it was the longest one hundred and twenty seconds of my life.  Nonetheless, our squad stood strong til the end.  It was a demanding game and it took a lot to get here.  We’ve had so many injuries, serious injuries that necessitated surgery, that plagued us early and midway through the season.  In the end, their hard work and persistence paid off.  Congratulations Panthers U16 Gold!

I filmed the end of the game on Facebook live and kept filming after the handshake line. It was pretty cool to see how the kids interacted after such a hard-fought game: makes you proud to know them.  In the end, we finally made it home just before or after 7:00 pm.  I’m really not even sure.  Today was a wonderful blur of hockey and rinks.   Thankfully, I was able to get most of the household chores and all of the laundry done yesterday.  Lastly, I head back to my endocrinologist tomorrow and am hoping for some good news, so please keep me in your prayers.