The second game of the tournament was against the Anaheim Lady Ducks. I heard that they were a AAA team but I cannot
confirm this. In any case, they were a talented group of hockey players that gave our boys some top-level competition. To
compound things, this was a non-checking affair. As disorganized as the Mariners had looked in their first game, they came
out looking like they'd miraculously learned how to play. Line after line was getting shots and generating quality chances.
In fact, Killian Anderson popped in a Brian Zacchia rebound to give the team it's very first lead of the tournament.
That
lead was short-lived however as the Lady Ducks came right back and tied things up. They would take a 2-1 lead near the end
of the second. The game was pretty even with both teams getting good pressure. The biggest problem was the lack of hitting.
The girls had some fast and talented players that were able to dipsy-doodle through our defense without fear of a shoulder
sandwich. Thankfully netminder Brian "Moose" Felt was able to keep his team from getting embarrassed.
As
with the first game, the third period was the Mariners undoing. Trust me, Coach Sergey will address this in practice. The
Lady Ducks scored three times taking this game 5-1. Though the result was about the same, it seemed like the boys were starting
to gel and playing a more team-oriented game.
As an interesting side-note: Niko Utash got his first
ever penalty. Last year we had games that made Slap Shot look like a game of croquette and he never once went to the "sin
bin", but we play some girls with no checking and he gets 2 for slashing. Go figure.
