[OK, we’re a little small this year.  😉 ]

CARDINALS – 7, Little Falls – 1

But seriously folks, the Super Fans do tend to favor girls’ sports.  Probably some sort of psychological thing we won’t delve into here.  But we’re all in the Medicare fun bunch group meaning we never got to see girls play sports in our day (before the electric light bulb).  Granted, there are those in our age group who do not understand this.  Thus is a pity.

I did decide, however, to check out this game.  It was the season opener and the Cards have a new coaching staff.  And Little Falls has had very good – state tournament good – boys’ hockey teams since before Charles Lindbergh.  Several times they were the obstacle to very good Cardinal teams making state.  This year, however . . . well, the final score doesn’t really indicate how dominant the Cards were.  I was the sole representative from the Super Fans . . . but anymore games like this and I may have friends!

[The JV also did good.  🙂 ]

[“The Voices” try to untangle the tools of the trade.]

[Is something moving under there?]

[Hello, mother ship.  Are you out there?]

[Assistant Coach Jon Crouse, whose resume includes being a former Cardinal, being the guy in charge of sticks . . .]

[Being the son of an Alex, class of ’65er . . .]

[Being a pro shop assistant at the Alex Golf Club, and, probably most importantly, being the guy who often logs in the Fat Boys Walking Club at the ‘Y’ each morning.]

[New Head Coach, Ian Resch . . .]

[Behind the Cardinal bench with “The Competition.”]

[The “colors” were presented by some Squirts.  🙂 ]

[Go, guys!]

[Lookin’ good.  Displayed some nice cross-overs.]

[The Flyers were introduced first.  Of note for the Cardinal fans were the Anez brothers, whose sister Michelle starred for the Cardinals state championship team in ’08.  Here’s Mark (19), a senior forward . . .]

[And Mack (17), a sophomore defenseman.]

[A now your ’13-14 Cards, beginning with Alec Wosepka (8), a junior forward.]

[Matt Resch (9), senior forward]

[Ryan Marciniak (20), junior forward]

[Parker Revering (3), junior defenseman]

[Kevin Finley (16), senior defenseman]

[Sam Goetsch (33), senior goalie]

[The National Anthem]

[Hey, Super Fan!  Did you get my picture?]

[And we’re off with the Cards immediately in the Flyers zone.]

[The Cards are swarming around the goal – and this was pretty much the pattern the whole game.]

[How’d the puck get over there?]

[Where’s the puck?]

[Are the Flyers finally getting it out  of their zone?]

[I don’t know why – in the middle of a boys’ game – I finally decided to take this shot.  That’s either a Freudian slip . . . or a boo-boo!]

[Alec lines one up . . .]

[And let’s it loose.  The poor Flyer goalie was looking at this all night.]

[After much bombardment, the Cards finally scored . . .]

[Aaron Steidl (38), senior defenseman, on a shot from the point.]

[The “red light” district?  The girls don’t get goal judges until the play-offs?  Hmmmm.]

[Let’s go celebrate!!]

[Here we come again!]

[Parker threatens the goalie.]

[Another full-fledged assault.]

[Chris Leary (18), junior forward, unleashes a shot.  At this point, you’re probably recognizing some last names.  Yes, there is a Wosepka, a Leary, a Revering on the girls’ team  – I’m going to take a flyer and say these are brother/sister combinations?  But oddly, and what’s happening to the ole home town, on both teams combined there are only three Olsons and one Johnson?]

[The Flyer goalie makes another stop.]

[Another scrum . . .]

[I’m going oh . . .oh . . . oh!]

[The puck is visible under the goalie.  Get it, get it, get it!]

[Then he laid on it – no goal.]

[Oh, I thought we had one!]

[Focusing a bit here on young Mr. Finley for reasons to be explained in a bit . . .]

[Ryan and Kevin ready for a face-off.]

[Why no, I don’t know Culver’s Flavor-of-the-Day?]

[Alec . . . for Alex.]

[OK, that was cheesey.]

[After the first period, amazingly only 1 to 0.]

[Close enough to the holidays, all the college kids were home.  Here’s last year’s captains with their double mocha frappes with a dash of cinnamon.]

[The 2nd period begins . . .]

[The flow of the game . . .]

[Was exactly the same as the 1st . . .]

[The Cards continued to storm the net . . .]

[Oooops, it’s here somewhere!]

[A lone Flyer attempts to stem the tide . . .]

[But the assault began anew . . .]

[Until the inevitable occurred . . .]

[GOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!]

[Alec scored . . .]

[Then Chris . . . the dam was burst.]

[The celebrations continued . . .]

[Brady Bast (5), senior forward, scored . . .]

[Ryan scored, shorthanded . . .]

[And Noah Hittle (15), sophomore forward, scored his first varsity goal.]

[The refs were plucking a lot of pucks out of the net.]

[It was really so lopsided, I had planned on leaving after the 2nd period.  Then Fat Boy (though he’s of the non-fat variety) Walking Club member Ken showed up after working his way down the line of hockey parents for two periods.]

[So, I hung around a  bit into the 3rd . . .]

[We attacked some more . . .]

[Then we scored again . . .]

[Lukas Bigger (24), junior forward, his first varsity goal.]

[No, goalie, you did as good as you can do.]

[And the Flyers scored a late power-play goal for the final score.  I didn’t get away.  The 3rd period was on running time and I ran into Jenna Finley (yes, Kevin’s mom) on the way out.  She’s the only “hockey mom” I know on the boys’ team.  And that because she is also Rachael’s mom.  Rachael was a center who graduated two years ago and is now a student in education at UMD . . . and she was there as a returning alum, too!  🙂 ]

Needless to say, the Cards looked really good . . . and really fast.  But you can’t tell from one game . . . and the Flyers are down.  As Coach Crouse said, we’ll know more after Tuesday.  If you’re a hockey fan, the Cards host Brainerd in a girl/boy doubleheader that night.  See you there!

[Sunset, last Sunday.  Oh, and before I forget (getting to be my used phrase), I recently noticed that local anomaly of lake icing – I crossed the Darling/Carlos bridge where to the south beautiful Lake Darling was totally iced over while to the north there was not yet a hint of ice on Lake Carlos.  We could have had the anomaly “Weakie” noticed several years ago at the L’Homme Dieu/Carlos bridge where they were fishing in ice houses on L’Homme Dieu and in boats on Carlos.]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, HAPPY HANUKKAH, AND REMEMBER, THERE ARE NOW ONLY 343 SHOPPING DAYS TILL GUY FAWKES DAY (YUP, JUST MISSED IT).