Back to the ice

Friday night, Linda and I returned to the 95KGGO Arena to see the Des Moines Buccaneers take on the Omaha Lancers. Once again, our seats were behind the goal in the north end of the arena giving a interesting perspective on the attack and defense.

Looking down the length of the ice puts both goalies in view at the same time; we've learned more about their role as watchmen and communicators of situations. In the last seconds of the time an opposing player is in the penalty box, both of these goalies would smack the ice with their sticks letting their attacking teammates know that another defender will be there soon. When the goalie recognizes an icing call could be coming, he'll raise his glove hand to let his teammates know that the opportunity exists; that the lead man can / should hustle to the puck but the rest can relax a bit. We keep learning.

Overall, this game was exciting. The crowd was near capacity for the venue and easily brought to full voice. An early goal by the Bucs brought us to our feet and turned up the sound system another notch. Shortly thereafter, the crowd demonstrated how unimpressed they could be when Omaha scored their answering goal. The remainder of the first period was hard fought. Each team showed excellent defense and frustrations and tempers started to rise. No "scraps" broke out but there were occasions where players were jaw to jaw letting each other know what was on their minds at the moment.

The second period featured some excellent set plays and some very fluid end to end action but produced no goals. No Krispy Kreme for us.

Midway through the third, the Bucs took the lead. In the closing minutes, the Lancers responded in kind and tied it once more. Bonus hockey!

Like the three periods before, five minutes of four on four didn't settle the issue. Shootout!

Omaha and Des Moines each scored on their first shots. Omaha reeled off three more goals while the Bucs couldn't find the net. Final score: Omaha 3, Des Moines 2.

Even though the Bucs lost, it was one of the more sustained intensely contested games we'd seen. Two very well matched teams played very hard and it was a treat to get to see them do it.

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Still playing with animation, there's an example behind the hockey picture on this post. Click the photo to go see it. It's not a loop like Twilight's eyes so you only see it happen once; to see it again, hit F5 to refresh the screen.