Ladies and Gentlemen. Boys and Girls.

It. Has. Begun.

(I love the whole. ....Grammatical. Rule. Breaking. Thing. Okay, back to the dramatic blog entry)

It. Has. Begun.

Well, I read the Diablos blog and I gotta say, it's hack "journalism". Yeah, you heard me right, I said it. It's quite obvious they lack journalistic impartiality. I mean, they ALWAYS downplay our awesomeness and exaggerate theirs. And Kirk didn't score from the blue line, it was the riight circle! You all can check out the link that should be somewhere below. Let's get back to the facts here.

The fact is they can play a good game of hockey, those Diablos. We managed to tie them, which was frustrating as we held a 2-1 lead for pretty much the whole freaking game. To paraphrase thier blog, a tie is like "kissing your sister."

I'm more of a "glass half FULL guy" myself. It's better than not getting kissed at all. And who knows....maybe your sister is pretty hot. I don't have a sister so that means, well...someone line me up their sister?

The point?? I think we pretty much outplayed them the whole game. Not by a lot. Not a domination nor even anything resembling an overpowering. But I think we had the edge most of the time but I'll give those guys this:

A) Opportunistic with some great shooters.

B) Got two opportunity and took....well....two great shots.

Oh yeah and C) They're fun to play. Really. Hard games, always close, a bit dirty and rough but nothing intentially injurious. We are playing hockey when we play the Diablos. It's really really fun.

It was a back and forth game without a lot given up either way. They scored first on a low shot that came quick that the Tree didn't see. Gotta watch those quick shots---so, so, so deadly.

Fortunately, our own freshly minted All-Star, Davey B took one of his patented knucklesque wrist shots from the point. From what they told me, Jeren "Drop Pass' Anderson, being the heads up, team playing, and molder of young minds that he is, managed to screen the Diablo's keeper at just the right second, and Davey's shot fluttered onto the goal.

Much celebration ensued. We had to as we were under orders from Larry "El Trituradora".

Now to add my wee little moment of glory here. Scultzie (All-Star) took a puck behind our net to the right side, dekes a guy and gets a pass to me on the right boards (skate flush against them--thanks Ah-Nye-Hilator). I manage a backhand SLLOOWWW pass that Krazy Kirk picks up and takes into the enemy zone along the right boards. I recover and start heading to the middle, forming a triangle with the Ah-Nye-Hilator as he's flanking left and angling into the slot. Krazy Kirk lays a great centering pass to him from about the middle of the right circle--a Diablo, or an act of God? The Universe continuing a running joke?--the pass goes into the net. Kirk scores more on passes than anyone else. It's scary. So within less than a minute we are up 2-1.

And 2-1 we stay for most of the game. We had plenty of chances. Drop-pass Anderson gets a dead puck on the Diablo goal line but just, can't, quite, get it.

Shit

The Ah-Nye-Hilator dekes the GOALIE about 15 feet out of their goal (gutsy move that nearly cost them) and has a clear open net and cannot, quite, just, get there for the easy goal.

SHIT SHIT!

We had a lot of opportunities. I had more legit shots than usual myself. But after a scoreless 2nd and about 1/3 of the 3rd, they put one in. And it was pretty. I cannot deny that one. But I gotta say I like my line. The Ah-Nye-Hilator is such a scoring threat all the time, and Kirk likes to buzz all over the place. I just try to do the same and of course use my tremendous intuitive faculties and stupendously high IQ--being that my physical skills are still in development--to contribute to the betterment of my team, you know? It's not about me. It's about my line and my teammates. Really!

We ended the game throwing everything we could at them but to no avail. In pool play in these playoffs there are no overtimes or shootouts. 2-2 tie.

We hung out afterwords with a few of the Diablos to watch the Pirranhas and the Renegades play to get a bit of a scouting impression. My personal impression?

We can take both those guys. The Diablos are better too.

We watched the first period and left with a score of 1-1.

They ended up tying 4-4.

Yep.

Folks....the 2008, AHA D1 pool 2 has all four teams winless after the first round. Therefore they are also lossless (is that a word?). That means the pressure is, as I like to say, been taken Up A Notch. Just like I like it :) We still have a blank slate and two games to go.

It's the coolest frakking thing ever!

BTW, there are plenty of tickets available for this weekend's games, so be sure to e-mail me if you need a few :)

-Kai