[In the first battle of the Cardinals of the season, our Cards topped Willmar’s. 🙂 This game was on Thursday, the 12th, so I’m less than a week behind now.]
[The supervisor and I arrived early as we always do to catch as much of the JV game as we could. But we had failed to read “the instructions.” It was announced (by e-mail) by the school that the JV game had been cancelled because of a scheduling conflict. Willmar’s band was also performing that night, a band that contained hockey players. At the high school level, band tops hockey.]
[So, we just sat in the concourse and admired the activity. Hockey players, boys and girls, from earlier practices were still milling around, their bags of equipment everywhere. The bag for goalie equipment is bigger than Forada – and yet even the young girls heft them around.]
[And the concourse aroma just reeked of . . . hockey! 🙂 ]
[The 8th & 9th grade boys (bantams? I can never get the names right?) played an intra-squad game as part of a fundraiser for a hockey mom.]
[Then posed for their parents.]
[Ashley and Brittin bracket a player (?) in civvies between them. We have had some injuries, as all teams do, and it’s also the time of year when colds and the flu can sweep through schools.]
[But it was nice to have Mari back, singing the National Anthem in uniform.]
[She had missed several games because of injury.]
[OK ladies, time to right the ship after that Sartell game!]
[Girls with sticks on the bench watch girls with sticks on the ice.]
[Taylor (24) wheels around on her backhand side.]
[And let’s it fly!]
[Mari’s (18) in front as Taylor chases the puck behind the goal.]
[Mel (6) carries the puck while Taylor rides shotgun.]
[Mel and Mari apply pressure. And I just realized with Taylor as the center, they’re the MTM line! (As I recall, the Mary Tyler Moore Show was produced by MTM Productions, but I digress.)]
[Then McKenna and friends joined the fun.]
[Kaila (7) and Carly (19) with their unidentifiable center?]
[Hanah (11) chases into the corner. Was she the center above? Nah, different hair color?]
[Nicole (23) slaps one from the point!]
[Taylor’s in on goal!]
[Oooohhhh! Although Willmar scored first (we weren’t worried), Taylor got it back for our Cards. I’m not sure if this was it?]
[Maybe not?]
[Nicole swoops in.]
[This is a center ice face-off – likely after a goal then. Our usual play is for the front line to hold their ground, while Nicole from her back defense position charges up the middle hoping to split the defense.]
[Mel comes in on her backhand side.]
[Our Cards are buzzing the net again.]
[Karina (31) lines up a shot.]
[A goal mouth tussle . . .]
[And GOOOOAAAALLLLLLL!]
[I think this was the 2nd goal, so that was Nicole . . .]
[But I don’t see her in the picture?]
[Mel closed out the 1st period scoring.]
[I think I got it! 🙂 ]
[After one.]
[Into the 2nd period, now I’m keeping a sharp eye on Mel . . .]
[Because when she gets one goal, she always gets two! 🙂 ]
[Again, Willmar scored first in the period, but we came back with a goal by Micaela (34).]
[She seems to be quite happy . . .]
[As she should be! 🙂 ]
[Then Sam (37) scored . . .]
[And there it is, wrapping up the scoring in the 2nd period. 🙂 ]
[After two.]
[In the 3rd, Taylor and company storm the net again.]
[She’s still on it!]
[Now coming around the far side.]
[Then the inevitable happens . . .]
[Yup, you can see her smiling . . .]
[Mel got her 2nd goal of the game to wrap up the scoring.]
Up next: Would you believe . . . hockey?
alexandriacardinals 