Last Day in Quebec

Woke up after a good night of drinking with Les Stingers , i was in Etienne/s basement ... rolled over looked at the clock and saw the time was 11 AM !!! we are supposed to be on the ice at 12:30 so i better get my stuff together . When i leave the room Michel is no longer passed out on the matress on the floor ... Michel is a former Montreal Canadiens draft pick , amazing guy ! good laughs :) check out his hockey db http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=29628 . I head upstairs and Michel and Etienne are chilling out and i then find out that it is actually 10 am and the clock had not been turned back LOL ... that makes me feel better as this morning we have our semi final match and i need all the energy i can muster up . Yesterday beat the hell out of me , 3 games in 1 day is tough ... playing the 3 teams we played was even tougher . 

We were short a skater because Vince got hurt in the first period of the first game :( yeah it sucked and i hope Vince is better ( i think he pulled his groin OUCH ! We have a guy named Patrick Groleau http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=33217 on our squad and he has a brother that played for the Montreal Canadiens named Frank http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=2044 it was only natural that we bring him out , the rules for the tournament state that players playing in the championship game must play at least 1 game before the final , this was the semi so he was allowed to play and would be eligible if we make the final ! 

Before we left for the rink we looked online to check times and found out our game was 1 hour later ! Etienne had to contact the guys to let them know that we had another hour of relaxing ... this was a good thing for all of us as i am sure we were all beat up pretty bad from the day/night before ! We chilled for another hour then headed to the rink ... when we get to the rink everyone is there and the stands seem a bit more full ! no i am not nervous about playing in front of crowds , it is actually more exciting with people in the stands :) 

 We had to play Les Agents Libres again , the team we played first and lost 8-3 to , that was yesterday and it was before i got into the pace of this hockey here ( fast ) i am sure they think they can smoke us but we also think we can do better then our first meeting . We started off well scoring in the first period taking the lead then they tied it up on a good goal which i had no chance on :( then we headed to the dressing room after first period with a tie ... i know i have to play above and beyond to get us this win and i was up for the challenge as i felt really good in the first period . The second period starts and i had a couple big breakaway saves to keep us in the match then there was a mix up in our zone and there was a pass across crease which was meant to be tapped in but i made a big toe save ... unfortunately the guy was alone and got the rebound and roofed it on me as i was sprawled out after making the initial save ... we ended the second period down 2-1 and the penalty parade began ...

There were 2 linesmen and 1 ref and somehow they missed a too many men on the ice call against the other team but for some strange reason in the 3rd period we got nailed for too many men ! Yeah a few of the guys were not please with the reffing and i could understand them all when i got to the bench , i told the guys to forget the refs and play our game . We missed some good opportunities in the first period and in the back of my mind i knew we should have been winning 3-1 after the first but at this point we were know down 2-1 at the end of the 2nd and the refs weren't helping ...

The third period was basically a penalty parade , it was honestly disgusting that refs were calling stuff that would not be considered penalties anywhere else in the world . We had to kill 2 five on three power plays , we killed the first one and we were hemmed in our zone for most of the third but we wouldn't give up ! mid way through the 3rd the other team got the puck to the point and a few guys screening me , one of them got lucky and tipped a puck that bounced in front of me and over my pads ... i was told this happened as i did not see a thing . They went up 3-1 and got a couple more power plays .... we battled but we were all dead from all the penalty kills we had to perform . Honestly we gave it our all and layed it all out on the line , with a couple minutes left in the game i was waved to the bench , we were killing a penalty and put our 5th skater back on the ice and gave them some pressure but couldn't get back into the game . yeah they ended up scoring an empty netter and eliminated us :( 

We all went back to the room feeling rough after the loss , i thanked all the guys for such a great experience ! i really wish i could have got us to the final , but the hockey gods were not on our side today . In the dressing room we all had a couple beers and i finally got to see some funny tricks that were performed by one of the guys whom i won't mention his name LOL ... with the invisible string he performed his penis tricks LOL ... i was hoping to see the other trick called the bomb HAHAHA it is a messy trick that has to be performed in the shower which part of me wanted to see but the other part didn't want to get into the way of the BOMB ! You are all wondering what the hell i am talking about ? Ok ... This guy gets his foreskin and pinches it really tight and takes a piss , then lets go of it and piss flies all over the place HAHAHA !!! with the invisible string the guy gets his penis half cocked , just a bit hard and then pretends to pull a string to make his penis dance around LOL ... yeah this was an interesting group of guys they made me laugh my ass off when they told me about this shit LOL ... i still laugh thinking about it ! 

I had no clue that we were going home right after the game , Alexandre told me lets go and i abruptly left after saying bye to the guys , we headed out to get some cheese curds to bring home . I had to bring home curds from the home of poutine , it does not get any better then this if you like poutine ! trust me ! The ride home was tiring for all of us heading back to Toronto ... i am so thankful that i was able to join these guys on this adventure and i hope to return to play with them again next year .. I want to thank Etienne for organizing this team and i have to thank Alexandre for bringing me there ... Les Stingers you guys are the best group of guys a goalie could ask to play for you guys all play with heart and you definitely earned my respect . 

PS- Les Agents Libres won the championship and apparently we have been told that their game against us in the semi was much more challenging then the final ... it is consolation knowing we could have won it if we made final , but in my heart i would love to try it again next year . 

Aurevoir mon freres . it was a pleasure competing with you all !