Friday December 6, 2019

Final: 5-0 Royal Knights

Decimated by injuries, our lads’ depleted troops took to the ice Friday night at River East.

We looked tired coming out of the gate, perhaps succumbing to the expectation of exhaustion to come.

River East took a 1-0 lead midway through the first and they were energized by our folly.

The second proved to be our undoing and the Knights scored three times in short order to go up 4-0 and rattle us to the core.

It was the NADIR of our season. It will prove to be a thing of the past, henceforth.

The third saw us gather ourselves, put the work ethic back into our game, and we totally dominated the Knights…playing most of the period in their end and getting chance after chance at their goal but we were thwarted by their keeper who had his sights on a goose egg. He remained true to form and barred the door. They celebrated mightily with their first shutout win in over three years.

Do not lose heart. All teams in our situation must regard their own plight and reach deeply to begin their transition. The third showed us that, even though the score was out of reach, we still had tenacity and self-belief. We did not roll over and die…we battled and worked for each other.

All teams face their self-worth moments and some simply cannot respond. We are not one of those teams. Our collective ‘heart and soul’ flickered brightly in the third, a place from which to re-gather, re-charge and re-energize for the rest of the season.

Very nice to see Dylan Hess back in our ranks, his defensive patience and balance will be a much-needed addition to our recovering walking wounded.

File this one under ‘as low as we go’ and leave it in the rear-view mirror.

– Fish