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East Coast Blaze welcomed ECL to the Valley Leisure Centre for the 1st round of leagues games of the new 07/08 season. Turning up on Saturday midway through the ladies game it was clear to see that ECL had bought everybody and everything with them to make the day seem like a home fixture…including several cans of Beer. ECL were prepared both on and off the court with their own PA system, music was played throughout the valley along with announcements for all of their players after goals and penalties. I thought this was quite intimidating for us on our home ground. The ladies were really unlucky as they played out of their skin and were unlucky to loose out at the end of a great game. The next game saw the 16’s and under take to the court…and when I say “unders” there were two of the blazes smallest players going head to head with lads double their size and age! Just like the ladies they gave a spirited and professional display to the final whistle but were unlucky to loose. By the time this game was over I was staring to get a bit nervous, I’m not normally bothered by nerves but I was starting to get the feeling ECL were going to rob all league points available from this meeting. I tried to lighten the atmosphere by ripping things up on the microphone taking over…somebody had to let ECL they weren’t in for an easy ride. As the Blaze rolled onto the court led by Coach, Corey and Team Manager John the guys started to warm up and focus themselves on the task in hand. The game started and the puck was dropped, the Blaze coped with the early pressure with new signing Ginge between the posts having a storming start to the period pulling off some amazing saves. Eddie and Ogee had added responsibility to carry the team as last years Captain Daniel had moved up to play with ECB. From what I saw of the game especially the first period the guys all tried their hardest and played some really nice hockey. However, ECL started to play their physical game and this began to take its toll as they moved ahead in the scoring! It was time for me to get kitted so I left for the changing room…in the back of my head though I knew from watching the first period we were going to be tested. As we rolled out of the changing rooms and onto the court I was met by Big Jim who had a really big smile on his face. He told me that he had scored a goal and it was one of his speciality huge slap shots! Jim’s goal lifted everybody and by this time the amount of people upstairs watching had doubled and their spirits were high because of Jim’s beast of a goal! Blaze worked their socks off as usual but ECL muscled their way through. Going into the warm up I couldn’t help noticing the ECL players seemed to be just chilling out they didn’t even seem tired considering they had just played…the guys with the Pink gloves were doing their tricks and skills while we were there fully warming up, giving Bazza’s new pads a hammering. The team talk started and we were all fully psyched up ready to start the season with a victory. From the moment the puck dropped I was reminded of ECL’s physical play as I got a dig to the ribs. From the off I won the Face off and the team continued to win battles every restart. The play was smooth from both lines and the passing between the lines really did seem effortless at times. We had decided that the best way to play these guys would be to make them chase to the puck hard and wear them down. It wasn’t long until ECL took the first of many penalties and on went a strong power play line-up to do the damage. Corey called the shots and told us to make a chance and bury the first opportunity we got…the encouragement from the bench was amazing! All I could hear over the fans was Big John…legend! The power play started and Fleck led the power play from the back taking his time to set the play. Spade took up a decent position on the wing and Lav and me were flying around the pitch giving the defenders a headache. I think every Blaze player touched the puck and within 30 seconds Lav hit a shot and the rebound fell nicely to me and I just hit it as hard as I could past the keeper. The celebrations were short lived as Bazza was left exposed and Maxwell with the Pink gloves fired in the equaliser low. Our heads didn’t drop though, more penalties were taken by both sides however, ECL couldn’t maximise as our penalty killing was tremendous. Corey and Stuarty were combining well but it was typical individual skill from Corey that saw us take the lead again. He took the puck past a couple of players wrapped around the net and delayed his shot before firing it across the net into the top corner, 2-1 ECB. Seconds after we took the lead Corey switched with Fleck to see him skate the length of the pitch and shoot the puck nicely past the keeper. Half time score 3-1…to be honest it should have been a couple more to each side if it wasn’t for big saves by Bazza and a few missed opportunities in front of goal. The second half saw some nice play but mostly the half was spoilt by too many penalties. It seemed to me ECL was looking for a scrap but everybody kept their composure (yeah right ha-ha) to the final whistle! The second half was quite scrappy and our finishing was poor at times looking for the perfect goal rather than banging it home. The only goal of the 2nd period was scored by me a nice one time wrist shot. It was a great team performance by everyone and the support on the day was brilliant! A mention goes out to Daniel who played his first ECB game…he is the fittest player on the team and everybody can look up to him for that! Alby # 94
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