It was not the prettiest of games (the Lil' Caps committed, count 'em, 10 penalties), but the team played with spirit and energy. The lads came out charging, and pressed early, but the first period ended in a draw. After the penalties began to pile up, the Caps eventually went down 1-0 late in the second period, when the Express scored a power-play goal with 3:15 to go in the second period. Up to that the point, the Caps had committed 6 penalties, so it was only a matter of time before they got burned.
Early in the third period, Chance scored for the Caps on a rebound goal in front of the net. The Caps then proceeded to commit another penalty, their seventh of the night. Happily, with 7:22 to go, Henry drew a penalty from the Express. One minute later, on the power play, Phip scored a goal from the point after a nice pass from Daniel. The game was far from over, however, as just 2 minutes later with 4:11 to go, the Caps are called for another (admittedly questionable) penalty. Then with 3:36 to go, Thomas is called for two minor penalties, which meant that the Caps would play the rest of the game short-handed. Of the last 3 minutes of the game, they played 30 seconds of it on a 5-on-3 penalty kill and another 45 seconds on a 5-4 penalty kill, before the Express committed a penalty to make it 4-on-4 (Wphew!). It was a wild and wooly final 3 minutes, but the Lil' Caps managed to hold on for the win!
The one consistently shining light throughout the game was Kayla, whose play was, once again, nothing short of brilliant. Time and again she repelled shots from the Express. At one point late in the third period, she had an amazing sequence of making three saves in a row in quick succession that could have meant the game. As a result of her play, the coaches gave her the game puck.
While it was an "ugly" game given all the penalties, it was also a heck of a lot of fun. The game meant something, the fans were into it, and the game ended in a wild and exciting fashion. What more could you ask for? Almost all of the players' Welcoming Families came to the game, and just about every one of them said it was the first time that they had had one of their teams win a Tournament game. That puts it in perspective for a what a nice achievement it is for the Lil' Caps to have won. As a result of their victory, the Caps will play their next Tournament game on Friday evening.
I managed to take a bit of video of tonight's game. Here are three of those clips:
1) The pre-game warm-up skate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGPSDwx9Zts
2) Phip's goal on the power play:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW6Xb32-m28
3) The last 2 minutes of play, with Henry making a key block and forcing the puck to the corner to end the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcft9GJ9bTg
Here are some photos from tonight's game and afterwards:
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