Broomball and the ALCS (later)

I'm not sure what to write about the ALCS yet, but once the game is over, I'll write a little piece about why the playoffs as they exist today are dumb. This might wait until after my 1:30 Heat Transfer test tomorrow.

I did, however, take a break from studying to play some broomball.


Wildabeasts 0, Other Team 0

This was the first broomball game I've ever played where I've been happy with my own performance. This goes down as my second career shutout, but more importantly, I finally played some fundamentally sound goalie.

The officiating was an absolute mess, with at least three, maybe four, of the total five high stick calls being questionable. Four high stick penalties were assessed to the Wildabeasts, so I had the chance to try out some new positioning and had some success. Only one of the shots was really high quality, a midlevel rocket that I gloved down, but the practice is pretty useful as far as learning where to line up and where to get the stick on the ice. I'm not sure where I can line up, but I've been keeping my feet touching behind my body to close the five-hole at the goal line while getting the stick angled down and the glove up.

Beyond the penalties, I had a couple pretty nice saves, one on a poke check that I was pretty sure wasn't going to work. I also caught myself dropping down in anticipation of a shot, something that's led to goals before, and corrected it before it became a problem.

I've been trying to keep the other team out of the crease a little more the last two games, so a few of 'em got sticked in the shoes when they were obstructing my view of the game. It works, so it's going to continue until I get yelled at. As far as I can tell, though, it's not illegal, and besides, the crease is actually supposed to be a protected area.

Our offense had a really good night for a team that didn't score any goals. Jeff had a top shelf shot that made both teams "oooh," but it went just high. The other goalie was probably the best goalie we've played, as we got 3 or 4 really high quality scoring chances that he made some nice reactionary plays on. It happens, but if we play like this next week, we get another W. We stand at 1-1-1...the playoffs are probably going to require a 3-1-1 record. We've got two games left to play. Let's do it.