This Darwin club have never really played on big ice as their rink is quite small but they have had a big following with a spotlight on them from around the country even having some funny commercials made about them in the past . I will try to link the commercial made a few years back if this website allows me to 😡 if not google Darwin ice hockey and I’m sure it will pop up and I guarantee you will have a laugh . I will post it on my Facebook page regardless after I’m done struggling to write this . These guys don’t have the highest of expectations but are simply here to enjoy the experience and make new friends which they are doing by hanging out at the arena bar constantly and by all means they are really great people ! The task at hand though is to beat them and then hope they beat Liverpool to give us an easy edge into the finals as only the top team from our group of 3 teams will face the top team from the other group ... going into this game I have yet to give up a goal in this division also .
Full lineup today and unfortunately one of our key skaters Craig Meharry has to leave after our game to go play in Perth with his junior club . Even more unfortunate was that my shutout streak would come to an end . The Darwin club that was there playing against all odds decided to come out hard and put their best foot forward and honestly gave us a scare as they scored two goals against this Canadian goalie that seemed to have the tournament in his grasp … yeah i'm talking about me lol ! After the first period we were tied 2-2 and we knew we weren't playing a team that was gonna lay down and play dead . We had to step up and then our unlikely hero got a puck fed to her and she broke free on the wing and as the Darwin defender was catching up to her she shot a hail mary shot on goal that snuck by the Darwin keeper and that was the turning point of the game …. yes this is not a typo …. Cheyenne Vogel , our kickass chick scored the big goal that we didn't look back from . I'm not surprised she scored but more relieved as she was trying so hard all tournament and came so close on a few occasions only to be robbed in previous matches . You could sense that the whole bench knew it was time to step their game up as she celebrated with everyone . I didn't play a spectacular role in this match as the team rallied around her big goal and went on to win this game 5-2 basically putting Darwin in a really tight spot to advance to the finals . Its now time to wait and see what happens in the match between them and Liverpool …. lets hope Liverpool doesn't win and if they do hopefully its a closer game giving us the edge in +/- if we do tie .
After the game I had a beer in the rink bar with some of the members of the Darwin squad and then grabbed an Uber to go back to the hotel . I was no longer willing to take the tram as its not too expensive to take Uber and I've bargained with Kevin to get him to the rink daily in exchange for dressing room beers . Nonny is usually tagging along and will get me back at a later date … all is good and everyone is getting along well . At the hotel we all decide to get a meal in and head to every one's favourite place to munch ...Nando's ! After my feed I head back to the room to take a nap as tonight is the big tournament party at this stripjoint called Strats where apparently you can catch hepatitis just walking in LOL ! All the locals speak very highly of this place and definitely wouldn't call it a gentleman's club . I can afford to stay out late tonight as tomorrow I have 1 game only and I have 2 more games coming up today and the third of the day is a big goalie match against the Beijing North Stars who have a really good goalie that has mutual friends that goes by the name of Trevor Garrett . I've already warned the guys that he will be the big test for the team and this game has all the marbles on the line .
After resting up and getting a good meal in I headed back to the arena to play my second game of the day and play against the other team from Darwin ! Another underdog squad that goes by the name Territory Storm who we must beat to stay in contention to top two teams in our group to go onto the semi finals . I must say after giving up a couple goals earlier I was a bit relieved to not have the pressure of trying to get shutouts all the time and going into this game I wasn't too nervous about the outcome of my play as I wanted to save as much gas for the third match which should be a doozie ! My Adelaide Tigers team mates are not in any mood to leave the standings with any room for disappointment and immediately come out on the attack with a 4-0 lead after the first period . I think that period I faced two shots and one of them might have been an icing lol ! The bench is really loose between periods but the task at hand is to run up the score to gain a better +/- over the Adelaide Falcons who we would end up tied with if they continue their winning ways . If we end up tied with them because of the tie game then hopefully we have the upper hand in the +/- department . Next period was more of the same as we scored 3 more goals to go up 7-0 and at that point I had probably faced 4 shots all game . The boys made it easy for me to rest up for the next game and when the third period started I think we were all taking it a bit easier then we should have as the Territory squad came out firing or maybe we just came out slow but regardless they potted a couple goals on me and this was not the time to start a new shutout streak or to even think about it as the only thing on all our minds was winning . We went on to score a few more to bump up our stats and win the match with a final of 10-2 . After the game we all took it easy and I hung out at the rink watching games and staying clear from the bar . I ate a snickers bar and tried my best to air out my gear with no luck .
Now because the Tigers tied their first game this match meant more then you can imagine as this Beijing squad was doing some damage in our division which is made up of 5 teams in our group and 5 in the other group . Some of the guys on my squad scouted these guys and we all knew going into this game that we had to watch out for a guy wearing red gloves …. #19 Lavoie . Apparently this guy was undressing full teams on the ice on his own which meant we had to play him hard and as much as most of the guys on other teams told me they dislike the way my Tigers team plays they should all understand that we are playing to win and not to make friends and this game we definitely didn't make any friends . #19 would touch the puck and then would get touched , usually with a slash or a cross check ! As we all know some of these guys with hands have a tough time when they are played rough and we took the penalties and kept him off the score sheet and played a true Canadian style of hockey without going overboard . My nemesis and the best goalie I played against by far stood on his head at the other end as he was peppered with shots that he stood up against like a brick wall and I have nothing but praise for my opponent . He made me nervous and probably made me play harder every time I saw him across the ice making that big save , until we finally scored ! In the 2nd period we went up 1-0 and that was all we needed as we kept their sniper off the sheet and in fact I'm not even sure if he even had a shot on goal ? This was my 4th shutout of the tournament out of the 6 games I have played and was probably the biggest game of the tournament to date for me . I made all the saves I had to make and didn't give out any rebounds as I gave it my all and this game put us in contention for the title . After our game it came to our attention that the North Stars filed a formal complaint over some apparent racist remarks ???? I was actually asked by Glenn Foll if I had heard anything which I didn't as I responded that I don't hear much from the goal crease which is not a lie . As this conversation was going on the player that filed the complaint walked in shaking like a leaf telling us it was him and low and behold it was their sniper Lavoie ! Now I don't want to sound like an asshole but what kind of sore loser files a formal complaint like this at a tournament and what does he expect to happen ???? This is coming from a team that had a guy named Frenchie on it and a guy named Buddy who was also a huge loser who punched me in the chest during the handshake …. talk about sore losers ! If they heard anyone calling them Frenchie or Buddy then maybe they shouldn't have those names pasted on the backs of their sweaters . I lost all respect for that squad and was more then happy to see this fucking baby with his elbows all wrapped up from the abuse we gave him as our game plan worked to a tee and my advice to him would be to wear elbow pads in the future or at least splurge the $16 on a cheap pair to wear when he has to lend his out to his father who apparently didn't bring a helmet to the tournament also …. how stupid is that ? In all my years travelling I have never witnessed this . Now don't get me wrong , I definitely don't condone anyone making any racist remarks but from what I know this is all fabricated and his word against ours as the refs did not hear this either and I definitely didn't hear any of this nonsense . Trevor if you're reading this … I mean no offense to you but your team mates were dicks .
Its now time to party ! Everyone on my Adelaide Tigers squad were jacked up and pumped for the big games to follow as we rolled into the last couple days with a 3-0-1 record tied for first and the big game to follow tomorrow would be between the North Stars and Falcons . If the North Stars win they clinch a playoff spot and if the Falcons win they clinch … a tie would put the Falcons through . We have clinched a spot in the semis but don't know who we play . And my Okinawa squad also will be watching another match closely as this Liverpool vs. Darwin game will probably have some deciding factors as to what we need to do to make it to the final but for now its time to party . Off to Strats we go ! First I need a shower … badly as I don't want to scare the strippers away and at the same time I don't want them to bother me .
When I got to Strats all the fellas where there and a couple of the women from the women's teams were there having fun also . Unfortunately we did not see much of the gals from the women's division all week ? Who knows what they were up to but plain and simple they weren't really mingling too much which kinda sucks because personally I would have rather talked to some of those gals about hockey then have a stripper come try to wrangle some money out of my wallet ! Strats is the same old shit and the talent wasn't up to par with the other establishments we went to but the atmosphere was great as I entered the goalie from Crown & Sceptre met me at the bar and praised my performance against his squad which was nice to hear but as usual is always a bit weird as I'm not the greatest goalie to walk the earth and rather be humble then praised but I thanked him and praised his performance in return …. after all , we only put 1 past him in that game and surprisingly they weren't fairing as well on their side of the grouping as we thought they would as they lost their opening match today . Waddo was at the bar also and we chatted about our big match up tomorrow … neither of us were spewing any confidence and as all the goalies were only talking with respect for each other which is the way it should be at these tournaments . Nobody likes a dick , especially in a strip joint hahahaha! And before I called it a night I saw some of the dicks from that North Stars squad walk in wearing their stupid green blazers looking like a pack of idiots . I still can't believe they whined like babies after losing to us . Tomorrow I have a big game and I set myself curfew of midnight and I stuck to it ….. some of the stuff that went on at the rippers that night are things I will keep to myself but I know one thing is certain , we all had fun !
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