Championship Weekend Summary

Game 1

The weekend started poorly with a loss to the Joliet Jaguars.  As with the previous meeting, both teams believed they were the home team and the Jaguars had to return to their locker room to swap jerseys.  The Lightning failed to score as the Jaguars put five tallies on the board.  Coach Gevers joked with the opposing coach that his team must be confused by the black sweaters and white socks as they had failed to beat the Jaguars in that configuration twice.  Once in the locker room, there would be no joking.  The coaches took the team to task for their lack luster performance.  When the coaches finally emerged from the locker room, the joking returned as the rink staff asked when the team would be finished with the room.  Coach Gevers informed them that we would be returning to the ice to do an hour of "Herbies".

Game 2

Saturday morning, the coaches challenged the player to forget the previous game.  In the previous meeting with the St. Peters Spirit, the Lightning had their best effort, surprising the Spirit in their first Mo-Am meeting.  The Spirit had bested the Lightning in two previous UPHL games.  Although Coach Gevers felt the team competed well, the team found itself down 4-1 after two periods.  The Lightning took advantage of undisciplined Spirit penalties and eventually tied the game.  The final power play goal came with just over a minute to play.  With 30 seconds to play, the Lightning took their own penalty, seemingly eliminating the team's chance to finish the job.  Coach Gevers simply wanted to make sure we didn't give up a short-handed goal and squander the hard work that had earned us a tie.  The Spirit made an ill-advised passed that was picked off and resulted in a break for the Lightning.  Although the Lightning didn't score on the break, the play resulted in a faceoff in the offensive zone.  Coach Flahive swapped centers for the faceoff to get a lefty to push the puck toward the net while a righty jumped into the circle to get the puck. The result was a shorthanded game winning goal with 12.5 seconds left in the third period.

Game 3

The team was very excited going into game 3 after the dramatic come back against St. Peters.  In addition, we found out that Nashville had one point through two games.  A win in game 3 would mean a chance to play for the championship.  The team came out flying against the A Game Polar Bears, scoring off the opening faceoff and eventually building a 5-1 lead after the first period.  The Lightning almost repeated the mistakes made by St. Peters by taking penalties and giving up power play goals and letting the Polar Bears back into the game.  Though the Polar Bears drew as close as 6-4, the Lightning held on to win 7-5.

Game 4

After 3 weekends of sporatic play, the Lightning found itself in position to play for the championship.  As fate would have it, the Jaguars went undefeated through three games to earn the right to play for the championship.  Coach Gevers pointed out that the Jaguars had ruined our chance at a perfect weekend early.  They had a perfect weekend going and now was our chance to have a little revenge in addition to winning a championship.

The Lightning responded with a strong first shift, almost scoring again off the opening faceoff.  Unfortunately, the second shift resulted in a penalty, followed shortly thereafter by a power play goal against.  The Lightning was undeterred, responding with four straight goals.  Starting the third period with a 4-1 lead, the Lightning gave up an early power play goal to cut the lead to 2.  Though the Jaguars kept pushing, the Lightning held on to a 4-2 lead with 5 minutes remaining.  To make things exciting, one of the players took a 5 minute major penalty with 4:45 left to play.

The Jaguars really turned up the heat on the power play.  They cut the lead to one with a power play goal with 3:36 left on the clock.  Though the player in the box and coaching staff were sweating bullets for the last three minutes, the Lightning held on to win the organization's first UPHL championship.

Summary

Players were not specifically mentioned by name because they really came together as a team this weekend.  Every player gave a great effort, especially in the last game, giving and taking hits and blocking shots.  Several players played hurt and contributed.  Though some numbers show up more often on the score sheet, the team won the championship by winning battles on the ice.  Blocked shots, taking hits to make plays, strong forechecking and backchecking all contribute in ways that can't be seen on a score sheet.  Each and every player on the team contributed to the wins and should be proud of what the team accomplished. 

Now to ride that momentum through the Mo-Am league!