alexandriacardinals

[* Why yes, that is a holiday play on words!  🙂  Happy Thanksgiving!]

Obert’s Happy Thanksgiving

Ruthie – Executive Chef; Tom – Assistant Chef/Bus Boy

Veggie Tray (celery, carrots, radishes, olives)

Baked Ham

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Fresh cooked Green Beans

Fresh cooked Brussels Sprouts

Hard Rolls/Butter

Apple Pie/Whipped Cream

Wine

[And yes, we did beat the Moorhead Spuds!  Tuesday night in a game that was so exciting the supervisor and I have decided to follow the team to the Cities this weekend.]

[We arrived early to see some of the JV game – the highlight of which was the return of a blog favorite, Sara Schmidt (above), to the ice.  And it’s probably good that we did.  Many of the Super Fans missed most of the first period of the varsity game because it was advertised as a 7:30 start, rather than the usual 7:00.  But it did start a little after 7:00.]

[Athletic Director Dave Hartmann joined The Voices in the booth prior to the game.]

[The Competition, with his white lens, was there early . . .]

[Probably taking yearbook photos.]

[Since all I can see is the “2,” I’m going to deduce that this is freshman Lauren Niska (21), because she is right-handed and warming up with the defenseman.]

[Circling]

[Spinning]

[Juniors Rachel Drew (4) and Taylor Ellingson (24)]

[Senior Madi Houska (12)]

[Senior Becca Illies (37)]

[Freshman Mari Wosepka (18)]

[Coaches Brittin Boike and Andy Shriver]

[Freshman Hanah Hansen (11)]

[Pre-game mingling . . .]

[And laughing.]

[Vinnie.  ‘Nuff said.]

[Where do you go to get good schweinshaxe in Alex?]

[Dairy Queen?]

[By title, where one goes to get warm.]

[Hockey parents behind glass.  Please do not try to feed them.]

[Assembling for introductions – then Roger sang the National Anthem again.]

[Senior Shelby Iverson (38) wins the opening face-off back to senior Shanee’ Herd (40).]

[This is like a set play – or a football off-tackle dive play – as Shanee’ gathers the projectile and shoots through the gap in the respective forward lines.]

[Shanee’ usually then circles the other team’s defense, thus starting the game in our offensive zone.  We like it!  😉 ]

[Becca tries to gather the puck for a shot.]

[8th-grader McKenzie Revering (29) – it seems to be giving an awful lot of responsibility to such a young player to defend mid-ice all by herself!?  ;-)]

[But, so far, boy has she been up to it!]

[Shanee’ advises sophomore goalie, Bailey Serum (35), that she has her left flank.]

[Freshman Mackenzie Abrahamson (17) and freshman Katie Bowen (26)]

[Defend the Fort Bailey and Shanee’!]

[Spuds start a rush.]

[Hanah again.]

[Maybe a little extra “air time” because we went to see her great uncle’s, John Hawkes, movie the next day.  And I had Milk Duds for the 1st time in about 50 years as the movie’s start was delayed by about 40 minutes due to the ubiquitous technical difficulties.]

[Taylor takes a face-off in the Spuds’ zone.]

[Rachel (4) and sophomore Nicole Bartels (23) are back to support Bailey.] 

[Shanee’ swoops up the right boards.  She made several full-ices rushes during the game using her strength and speed.]

[Freshman Lauren Niska (21)]

[No. 8 for the Spuds was a pain.  😉 ]

[Hooray for us!  Junior Melissa Drew (6) scored on a backhand after a flurry on the Spud netminder.]

[Yay Melissa!]

[The Spuds questioned the goal – we don’t know why – but the constabulary discussed it for a while while Melissa’s line waited to get going again while they were hot.  That’s three “whiles” in one sentence, though I believe all are properly used.]

[The Becca-Shelby-Madi line applies pressure.]

[Shelby circles the net.]

[Keeping the pressure on.]

[Madi and Shelby . . .]

As the 1st period ended, our feeling was after the Cards opening push the Spuds seemed to have a slight edge in play.  They had an apparent size and strength advantage that Moorhead teams always seem to have.  The Spuds led 2 – 1 after that period and had an 11 – 7 shots on goal advantage.

[Unless Shelby is heading back on defense, we are now in the 2nd period.  Several minutes in I remember commenting that the Cards hadn’t had a shot on goal yet – the Spuds lead in that department had increased to 15 – 7.  Then the beehive fell on them . . .]

[Shanee’ asks for the puck.  Lauren had just scored her first varsity goal.  And I, in a sense, called it.  We had noted in the opener that she had a wicked slap shot.  She had a full head of steam heading into the Spud zone, with a Cardinal on each wing which spread the defense enough that I said to “Weakie” she’s going to crank one.  Just inside the blueline she hit a low bullet and scored.  That was part of an incredible run by the Cardinals the last half of that period – I have never seen a Cardinal team play better against a quality opponent – where we just maintained constant pressure, from all three lines, and outshot the Spuds by 17 – 1 for the rest of the period.]

[We’re ready!  Let’s go!]

[Nicole and Lauren, a sophomore and a freshman, on the backline.]

[The puck shoot indicates the 2nd period is over.  The score was 2 – 2, and now the Cards held a 24 – 16 shot advantage.]

[Cardinal domination continued into the 3rd period.  We had several good chances – with several opportunities with no defender between the shooter and the goalie – so we have to give the Spud netminder a lot of credit.  There’s an obvious tendency to rush the shot in those instances – scorers have to have patience when it seems you have no time.]

[Then after almost a full period of close, near misses, the young Ms. Revering launched a long change-up toward the goal that somehow made it over the goalie’s left shoulder and into the net.  The Cards had a 3 – 2 lead!]

[McKenzie’s in there somewhere.  😉 ]

[Save that puck.  It was also her first ever varsity goal.]

[Madi and Becca lead another charge.]

[Becca’s on the door step!]

[Spuds escape again.]

[Spuds called a time-out – in preparation for pulling their goalie.]

[But Shelby got an empty-netter for the final goal.]

[Final face-off.]

[We’re going to be a really fun and exciting team if we can stay healthy.]

[Downtown the next day – the Christmas decorations are up!]

[We were in-town to get tickets for “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  I’m here to encourage all of you to do so as well.  Support the AAAA.  It’s the holidays – take the kids, grandma and grandpa, the missus, even that crazy uncle you really don’t much care for!  🙂 ]

[Thanksgiving morning – another beautiful November sunrise over beautiful Lake Darling.]

[Happy Thanksgiving – and see y’all next time at the RCC.]

p.s.  After temps in the high 50’s yesterday, and still in the 50’s this morning, it’s now 12:30 . . . and snowing!

[p.p.s.  Then we ate . . .]

[The turkey?]

[Remember that 50-degree morning sunrise?]

[Must be time to dig out the Christmas decorations.]

Sometimes the duties of this “job” require extensive road trips.  This past weekend was such a time.  [Yes, I did plan for beer taps to be in the background.  😉   Ms. Williams is “of age” but cannot partake because of NCAA, and training, rules.  Obviously, she did not.  She did have her pasta, however, to build carb energy for Sunday’s game, as we so advised her in high school.  This was after Saturday’s game at the Green Mill in Bemidji.]  Oh, and if you look to the right of the above photo, that’s Abby in the border photo taken after the Cardinals won the state tournament in 2008.  🙂

[That’s Abby, No. 3 (her old high school number), on the program cover.]

Abby, of course, is Abigail Elizabeth Williams.  (I know the “Abigail Elizabeth” part because I was standing next to her mother, Martha, at a game one time when Abby made a bad pass.  Martha exclaimed, “ABIGAIL ELIZABETH!”  😉 )  As you recall from your readings, Abby, and her hockey classmates, are entirely to blame for this blog.  We started following them, and got hooked on girls sports, back in 2003.  They are the reason I get up at “oh-dark-thirty” in the morning and try to compose something literate, if not necessarily accurate, about the previous night’s game, in whatever sport.  In other words, they were a job creator long before the term became fashionable.

We decided, with fellow original Super Fans, Vivian and Bob “Weakie” Annen, that we had to see Abby play hockey in her final college season.  She is a 5th-year senior at Bemidji State (she had to sit out a year after transferring from U of M, Mankato, because the coaching staff who recruited her left after her freshman year).  Last weekend worked out perfectly as the Beavers were hosting the University of North Dakota (now without a nickname as they are considering a replacement for the Fighting Sioux) for Saturday and Sunday matinee games.  The weather even cooperated, for a change!

We drove up Saturday morning, taking a slight detour to check on the kids’ property – the “Harn” (combination of house and barn) – north of Itasca State Park.

[The entry to their 20 acres.  We fortunately remembered the key so we could get in.]

[The drive in.]

[I left the supervisor to trail blaze on her own.]

[Jami and Danny have cords of wood stacked wherever they have had to clear trees.]

[The “Harn”]

[The supervisor wraps up her inspection.]

Then, it was on to Bemidji where we were meeting the Annens for lunch prior to Saturday’s game.  We like Brigid’s Cross, an Irish pub downtown!  And we have to admit these trips are all about the eating!  😉

[“Weakie” has a Guinness.]

[Vivian has a Smithwick’s (for some reason, pronounced “schmiddicks”?).  Editor’s note:  The editor and staff of this publication do not condone the usage of these products by the teams we cover.]

[We were the only Alexandrians in the place.]

[Waiting for shepherd’s pie.  Mmmmmmm!]

[The supervisor models her Beaver attire.]

[Vivian jaywalks from the pub!]

[On to our lodging, the Hampton Inn on the shores of Lake Bemidji.  For perspective for those who haven’t been there, Lake Bemidji is 6,800 acres large – by contrast, our beautiful Lake Darling is 1,000 acres.]

[The views from the Inn:  Downtown (and below).]

[The University (and below).]

[The lake.]

[Then the supervisor led us to the arena for the game.  Boozhoo!  (Ojibwe greeting, “Hi!”  We have been to Bemidji many times, but this was the first time I noticed Boozhoo all over town, on the entrances to businesses . . . and at the hockey arena.  Everybody must be reading William Kent Krueger?  😉 )]

[The scarf that blocked my view of that face-off circle!  😦  The supervisor almost lost her fudge, bought after lunch and put in her purse.  The checker at the game said it’s a no-no to bring candy into the games – but unlike TSA, she let Ruthie in with a wink and a promise from her she wouldn’t eat any at the game.]

[Martha works the crowd.]

[The Beavers!]

[Finally . . . we were there to see Abby play hockey after all!  😉 ]

[Abby and the no-longer-the-Sioux’s No. 3, Michelle Karvinen from Denmark and Team Finland, always seemed to be on the ice together.]

[Go, Abby!]

[The 3’s, again.]

[No. 14 for the Beavers is Erika Wheelhouse.  We’ll get back to her . . .]

[Abby’s the center – and she has a great face-off win percentage this year . . .]

[And she won this one!]

[I like this one if I do say so myself.  😉 ]

[No. 17 for the no-longer-the-Sioux is Jocelyne Lamoureux, who with her twin sister, Monique, are teammates and Olympians.  More on them as we go along.]

[Abby tangles with Jocelyne, again.]

[Get her, Abs!!]

[In full flight.]

[With her shadow, Karvinen.]

[Back checking against No. 63, another great Dane.]

[Line change.]

[Jocelyne ripped the stick out her hands – so they hit Abby with a slashing penalty?  Honestly!  We used to say Abby took penalties in high school just for the rest – and we were better shorthanded than on the power play anyway.]

[I honestly don’t even remember this?  The Beavers Sadie Lundquist, from Cloquet, is in on goal alone.  I don’t know if she scored or not?  The scoreboard says the Beavers had 1, and final score was 3 – 1 for UND, so unless this was the replay, she didn’t score.]

[The Abster delivers a forearm shiver to the back of Mary Loken, No. 2.  Loken is from Roseau, and was on the team we beat in the semi-finals of the state tournament in 2008.]

[Abby and Loken in a wrestling match as the Abster tries to protect her goalie.]

[Lemme at ’em!]

[Loken shadows Abs.]

[Allison Parizek, No. 6 for them, was named 1st star of the game.  From Minot, she could fly!]

[Abs and her teammate, Danielle Williams (59) from Waconia, try the ole squeeze play.  Last year they had three Williamses on the same line.  🙂 ]

[Stay away from my goalie!]

[Late in the game UND sent out a 6-footer, Becca Kohler (51), a freshman from St. Thomas, Ontario, to face-off against Abby, who is listed as 5’2″ (?) . . .]

[Well. young miss Kohler’s idea of a face-off was to simply run over Abby.  No penalty was called, to our chagrin!]

[Abby picked herself up, dusted herself off, and . . .]

[Hey, 51, I got your number!!]

[And I’m coming to get you!]

[Outa my way!]

[And then it was over.  Good game, UND just has a little too much firepower, which would really manifest itself in the Sunday game.  It was fun to watch Abby play again.  She’s mostly a defensive specialist for the Beavers – she kills penalties and plays against the other team’s top line, in this case, the redoubtable Ms. Lamoureux.]

[Post-game handshakes.]

[After the game, hockey alumni were introduced . . .]

[Including Marlee Wheelhouse on the far right.  If you recall, we previously noted Erika Wheelhouse.  They’re sisters from Crookston – and are best buds with Abby, probably because they’re all the same size!  😉  Marlee is Abby’s age, but graduated last year; Erika is a senior this year (when a sophomore in high school, was considered the top defenseman in the state).  Crookston came to Alex to play our Cards during the Christmas holiday break in either Abby’s and Marlee’s junior or senior years.  Great game!  It went into overtime and even the Alex fans didn’t want either team to lose – it ended in a 1 – 1 tie.]

[Marlee and Erika Wheelhouse (from last year) in a photo borrowed from Eric Stromgren’s “Up North Sports Report” blog.  Erika was knocked backwards in the Saturday game and hit her head on the ice.  They weren’t sure whether she received a concussion, but they held her out of Sunday’s game to be on the safe side.  She is probably the Beavers’ most important player and her absence really showed on Sunday. ]

[Then the fun part – dinner with Abby and her family afterwards.]

[With her folks, Martha and Jim.  Thanks again, you guys!  🙂 ]

[Sunday was a beautiful day – starting with heading down for breakfast in the hotel.]

[After breakfast, we went out for a drive around town.  We decided to stand on the Side of Love after Vivian experienced the angst of being surrounded by the UND team in the hotel lobby, as they were staying there as well.  😉 ]

[I believe there was some mention of “flashing” from this mural.  As the artist, Vivian wanted to see the art Bemidji usually has displayed around town.]

[Downtown corner statuary.]

[We ran into Elmer Fudd at a downtown woolen goods store.]

[Lake Bemidji.  “Weakie” really had his heart set on a Maid-Rite for lunch.  But the place was closed on Sundays.  Almost ruined his entire trip!  Then we spotted a Mexican restaurant – hey, a soft shell taco is almost like a Maid-Rite!  But it turned out to be a Mexican coffee shop.  Strike two!  We then stormed – is it the Blue Ox Grill?  The old train station.  Bring Bloody Marys as soon as possible.  Well, the girls had to sample them first to see if they were too hot.  They were for them – not for me!  And then a wild rice burger!]

[Fishermen on the lake on November 18!  And Bemidji really is . . . Up North!  Boats and docks come out of the water in Alex usually no later than the 1st week in October.]

 [Abby warms up her slapper for game 2.]

[The future of the sport – what a cute bunch of little peanuts!  😉 ]

[One of these oughta go in the net?]

[“Weakie” said the Maid-Rite is closed today?]

[I was thinking about a steak anyway.]

[Checking on the future again.]

[Marlee Wheelhouse on the left, Dad Wheelhouse on the right.]

[Bring ’em out, bring ’em out,  bring ’em out . . .]

[And here comes the Abster!]

 

[This was a really weird game.  Here the Beavers celebrate a goal on their 1st shot of the game.  UND responded by scoring on their first shot of the game.  It was 1 – 1 less than one minute into the game!]

[Somehow the photographer hit a wrong button the camera here . . . and didn’t notice it.  So we have a bit of an artsy effect for a while!  😉 ]

[The chaos that is the face-off circle!]

[The dad of a hockey playing daughter always has to find a lucky seat off by himself.  I think it’s a rule.]

[Hockey dad Wheelhouse appears to be uncomfortable being this close to other family and fans.  😉 ]

. . . and Our Weekend With Beth

[Beth Rindy also played on our 2008 state championship team.  She was a sophomore defenseman.  Now she is a junior at BSU.  We were happy she was able to join us for the Sunday game.  Beth played her last hockey game in high school – it’s unfortunate but apparently two good knees are necessary to play the sport and Beth was playing in braces at the end.]

[Back to the game, the weirdness continued in the 2nd period.  On the Beavers first shift, they were just looking for a line change and shot the puck into the UND end.  A linesman raised his arm indicating icing was going to be called.  The UND goalie seeing that must have relaxed just enough that when the puck took a weird bounce she wasn’t able to defend it – GOAL!  UND scored immediately thereafter.  As in the 1st period, two goals within the first minute.  It didn’t stop there for UND . . .]

[That’s Abby on the right in a crotching defense against a UND power play.  It was unstoppable.  UND was ranked 5th in the nation prior the Lamoureuxs going off to play for the national team.  They’re on a roll again.  I didn’t realize UND had recruited the latest Marvin out of Warroad and also Sam LaShomb out of South St. Paul, who was a finalist for Ms. Hockey last year.  They are a very talented team.  The Beavers graduated their excellent goalie, who plays for the Slovakia national team, and lost all their defenseman except for Erika.  It really wasn’t a goalie issue that UND scored 6 goals in the 2nd period.  Absent Erika, they couldn’t defend the UND power play.]

[Here’s a goal by UND.  I would guess of the 7 UND goals, Jocelyne (17) must have had 4 or 5 of them, and Monique, who is now a defenseman, must have assisted on every one of them.  They’re not on the Olympic team by accident.  Even though we didn’t like the outcome, we had to admire the precision of their power play.  The point people would one-time the puck back and forth until the left point would one-time it to the right face-off circle (one or the other was Monique) who would one-time it to the left side of the goal mouth where Jocelyne would one-time it into the empty corner of the net.]

[We and the Annens left after the 2nd period to have as much daylight driving as possible.  On the way out, Martha introduced us to Abby’s “friend,” on the electronic bulletin board.  The supervisor met him on our last trip up for a game and reminded Abby that she thinks he’s a hottie.  Abby giggled.]

[Because we missed the Emmaville sign last trip.]

We made it to Parkers Prairie before it got dark.  The supervisor has become very concerned about deer – and we did see three cross our road (had to brake once) on the way home.  But we made safe and sound.  Thanks again to Abby, and Jim and Martha, for a fun weekend.

p.s.  Our girls are hosting Moorhead tonight!

The home winter sports season officially started last night.  Visitors here are undoubtedly delighted they will no longer have to read about our dining endeavors as fillers (yes, that was a play on words).

And so we begin.  This was the Cards third game of the year.  We lost the opener at North Metro, 4 – 3 – not bad considering it was the first varsity start for our freshman goalie, and we outshot the team that’s a conglomerate of 5 or 6 schools, each alone larger than Alex, by a 2 – 1 margin.  Then we won 3 – 0 at Fergus on Tuesday.  Then last night’s win against the Lakers means we had back-to-back shutouts against the two teams who are traditionally our strongest competition in the section.  All-in-all, an impressive season’s debut.  Now the team has to deal with the motherlode of high expectations.  I think we’re in for a fun ride.

[The goalies commiserate during warm-ups:  Amy Jost (33), freshman, The Taco John’s hot sauce is way too mild.  Bailey Serum (35), sophomore, I know, it needs a habenaro kick!]

That previous discussion between the goalies is indicative of the nature of goalies.  They have a fearless, try anything, gene.  It’s incomprehensible to those of us who don’t have it.  Danielle “Roadblock” Justice from our state championship team would go swimming before the ice was totally off the lakes, she would rock climb, and she undoubtedly was a habenaro pepper fan.  When she graduated from Gustavus in the spring, she and a teammate took off for New Zealand,  just to live there for a year.  I brought this all up at this time so I don’t forget again.  You can follow the adventures of Danielle in the land of the Maori at her blog:  www.2girls1van.tumblr.com.  An adventure that will give her a lifetime of memories.

Where were we?  Oh yeah, we believe our goalies will be very good.  And in general, defense will be the strength of the team.  With an excess of defenseman, several have been converted to forwards who by previous training are quick to get back and help defensively.

[I stood behind the net during warm-ups and tried to get as many players as I could while they were circling.  This is McKenzie Revering (29), an 8th-grade defenseman.  An 8th-grader, for Pete’s sake!  When I was in 8th grade I was still putting my underwear on either backwards or inside-out about half the time.  And she’s good, one of the 4 regular defenseman when they just decide to play 4.]

If you’d guess based on reports so far that we have a really young team – you’d be right!  And yet for this year, we’ll rely on the grizzled veterans, seniors Shelby Iverson (38), Becca Illies (37), and Madi Houska (12) to do most of the scoring.  And the other two seniors, Shanee’ Herd (40) and Anna Carlsen (31) will be key defenders and role models for the young teammates in their charge.

[Madi Houska (12), senior forward.  A favorite of “Weakie’s” because he likes the musical sound of her name.  😉 ]

[Lauren Niska (21), freshman defense, followed by a smiling Taylor Ellingson (24), junior was defense, now forward, and pitcher for the softball team.]

[Becca Illies (37), senior forward]

[Rachel Drew (4), junior forward; followed by Mari Wosepka (18), freshman forward; followed by Nicole Bartels (23), sophomore “wherever you need me.”]

[Shelby Iverson (38), senior forward; followed by Melissa Drown (6), junior was defense now forward.]

[Shanee’ Herd (40), senior defense]

[Happily back for her 6th year on varsity.]

[The RCC – Home, Sweet, Home]

[Yoga on ice.]

[Do you like the hot sauce on your Potato Oles’?]

[Passing drills.]

[Becca.  Her mom is also a regular at the Y in the morning.  She is not a member of the Fat Boys Walking Club.]

[The seniors!]

[Shooting drills.]

[More circling – Madi (12) again.]

[Mari (18) again.]

[Nicole (23) followed by Kaila Dewanz (7), sophomore forward.]

[Shelby (38), Taylor (24), Bailey (35)]

[Looks like Melissa (6) and Lauren (21).]

[And in the press box, the Voices of the Cardinals, Dave Harris and Bob Cunniff.  With the new monopod, I was finally able to get a sharp photo all the way across the ice.  🙂 ]

[Bob was looking for a way to burn off nervous energy.  He is one vote behind – 10,652 – 10,651 -in his race for a Minnesota House seat.  The automatic recount will begin in a couple weeks.]

[The controlled chaos that is the PA/scorer’s refuge.]

[Super Fan Roger Riley, red hat, attempts to elbow his way in to sing the National Anthem.  The Cardinals are undefeated when he and his wife Barb sing the Anthem.]

[Congregating for pre-game introductions.]

[Uncongregating]

[Shelby]

[Becca and Shelby]

[Shelby, Becca, Madi, and Shanee’]

[Shelby, Becca, Madi, Shanee’, and Nicole.  There will be a test at the end.]

[Amy joins the starters.  Shanee’ checks to make sure I got the shot!  😉 ]

[My 1st grade class photo.  (Just checking to see if you were paying attention?)]

[LEETTTTTSSSS PLLLAAAYYYYY HOOOCCKKKKKEYYYY!  Opening face-off.]

[Nicole crosses center ice.  Here she’s playing defense.]

[Lauren hunkers down.]

[What do junior high kids discuss on the ice?  We get to go to the new high school!]

[Taylor readies for the draw.]

[Shelby shoots . . .]

[Becca looks to keep it in DL’s zone.]

[Another Taylor face-off.]

[Hey, ref!  I’ve got the puck right here in my glove!]

[Shanee’]

[Shanee’, part deux]

[Melissa (6) scores on a backhander, giving the Cards a 1 – 0 lead after one.]

[The face-off after the goal.]

[No. 11 is Hanah Hansen, listed as a freshman defenseman, but here playing forward.  Hanah’s great grandmother, Pat Perkins, was at the game and Ruthie had a visit with her afterwards.  Oh, Pat is also known as John Hawkes’ mom!  😉 ]

[The redoubtable Ms. Revering again.]

[Taylor looks for a break-out.]

[At the end of the 1st period.]

As a change from previous years’ coverages, this is a video of the beginning of the 2nd period.  There is no particular reason for this – although the supervisor and I did arrive at the arena later than planned because of the “stop and chat” aspects of an event at SAWA preceding the hockey game.  It proved fortuitous, for seldom do we capture a goal.  This time team captain, and homecoming queen (another shout out to our HQ 🙂 ), Shelby scored for us.  Oh, at the end, Rachel took quite a hit – she did continue to play the rest of the game, but I bet she’s pretty sore today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cuhRpeiyHQ

[Period 2 – apparently I decided to do the rest of the game without the telephoto.]

[Cards are in the zone.]

[And storm the net.]

[Shelby, Becca, and Madi keep the pressure on.]

[Some time around here Becca scored a short-handed goal making it 3 –  0.]

[The puck in flight from McKenzie.]

[There is some celebrating here . . .]

[And again, so it must be . . .]

[After they moved Nicole to forward on the 3rd line (chronologically) for a shift . . .]

[She scored two goals on that shift . . .]

[Within a span of 15 seconds!  🙂 ]

[The 2nd period ended thusly.]

Odd game to that point.  The Cards were hit with numerous penalties – most we didn’t see.  But, we’re old and miss stuff.  So it’s surprising that we did all the scoring in the period because we spent a good portion of it playing short-handed.  The penalties also continued into the 3rd – I’m not sure how many we had but it seemed a lot.  One time it seemed like Becca was out there the whole time fighting off a 5-on-3 Laker advantage.  I don’t think the Lakers had many shots in the game when the teams were playing full strength.

[Between periods puck shoot . . .]

[The Cardinal hockey mom in the dark top put one through the $25.00 hole.  I’m sure someone will remind me who she is.]

[On to the 3rd . . .]

[Jailbreak!]

[Here we come again, ooh ooh ooh!  Catch us if you can . . .]

[Boom!  Dynamite!]

[Big crowd!  Good turnout by the students.  Saw the girls’ basketball team there.  And the Super Fans almost filled our section!  Good to see everybody again!  Robo was back from the East, Bob and Vivian, Mike, Mitch and Jeanne re-joined the group, Karen, Roger, Ted and Jerry were standing above us, newcomers Jeanne and Ken, and the supervisor and me.  I wanted to get shots of us – and the hockey moms – but I couldn’t get out!]

[Mari got her first varsity goal in the 3rd to round out the scoring.  Cards win!]

Next up:  Tuesday night at the RCC v. the mighty Spuds of Moorhead, a place where hockey trumps all and where people skate to their dental appointments.  We have nothing after that until the following Tuesday, which presents our first scheduling conflict – on the 27th, both girls’ basketball and boys’ hockey have their home openers.  What’s a fan to do?

p.s.  Unfortunately, we also got word yesterday from her folks that Kalley Kragenbring has been advised by her doctors she should not play hockey anymore.  Kalley suffered two concussions last season and missed the last part of the year.  She was really hoping she’d be ready to play again this year.  When that was ruled out, she hoped she play next year, her senior year.  Now that has been advised against as well.  We wish Kalley all the best and hope first and foremost that she gets healthy again.  She plans on staying with the team to help manage – and skate with the coach when she can.  Here are some photos from last year – Kalley is No. 10, a terrific goal scorer, and the girl in the glasses on the left at the team banquet.

[One of my favorites.]

[OK, this was 2003.  But you get the idea.]

[OK, this was 2007.  But you get the idea.]

[This was last Saturday.  I didn’t get there in time to duplicate the preceding photo.]

Saturday marked either the 40th or 41st edition of Thanksgiving With Basketball Dan (note other sites herein).  We’re not sure if the first one was when he lived on Larpenteur Avenue (originally Minneapolis Avenue for you Trivia buffs) or Como Avenue.  It for years coincided with the Michigan-Ohio State football game, and the guys (and later some gals) from a time far away and long ago at the ‘U’ would gather at Dan’s for an afternoon of turkey and football (multiple TV’s going on multiple games).  Subsequently, all were joined by some of his peers in academia at St. Thomas.  A distinguished group, or so they say.  Looking back now, as we do at these events, we have the odd realization that our generation has been in charge of the country . . . and the world, and now we’re getting ready to hang it up and go watch girls’ hockey.

We left Saturday morning in our usual “day trip to the Cities” foul weather.  Two days prior the forecast had been for great weather – then the weather gods learned we were going to be on the road.  Misty, icky all the way down listening to a clacking wind shield wiper.  We left for home as dusk was falling.  I  have never driven home at night from the Cities when it hasn’t snowed – even in July!  If I’m the driver, we stop at the emergency room of Douglas County Hospital so an orthopedic surgeon can pry my fingers loose from their embedment in the steering wheel.

[The Hasz sisters at the state cross-county meet on November 3 (Echo photos).]

[At state.]

[At the sections on October 25.  Bethany has subsequently qualified for the nationals in Oregon by finishing 5th at the regional meet in Sioux Falls; Megan just missed at 9th.  Congrats again to both of them (Echo photos).]

I have learned that driving is best left to the supervisor.  So she did it both ways – because I, as the man, always drive either too slow, too fast, or in the wrong lane.  Now I just sit on the passenger side, nose buried in a electronic solitaire game, and only looking up and out the window when I smell the Albany DQ.  This time we couldn’t even see it on the way home.  We hit a fog bank at Clearwater that stayed with us all the way to Alex.  We followed the tail lights of a bus all the way, going about 60 mph.  When we turned off at Alex, the sky lit up with lightning, thunder boomed, and rain pelted down like we hadn’t seen since . . . June?

[Sarah Bruzek, above, and Becca Illies, below, in the state soccer tournament on October 25 (Echo photos).]

We stopped at brother Cam’s and sister-in-law Karen’s Mounds View abode on the way to the turkey in Woodbury.  We had not seen Cam since his industrial accident that caused the loss of the middle finger on his right hand.   Little did he know that working on a 2nd degree in horticulture at age 58 would be so perilous!

Strange though it may seem, he actually knows a couple Alex hockey moms.  I’m not sure if they would acknowledge it, however.  And Karen works for Cuningham, the designers of our new high school!  🙂 ]

Absent that finger, he now finds it hard to signal that he’s “No. 1!”

But he said the hardest part is receiving change . . .

When Dan first moved to Woodbury you could roll a bowling ball down the luge chute that is I-94 all the way to Wisconsin.  I fine metaphor if I do say so myself since The Great One was indeed at one time a nationally-known bowler.  And here he is with the supervisor outside Fat Daddy’s in 2006 – he’s a close personal friend of Charlie Meyer (OK, they know each other).

We timed our arrival perfectly – all the meal prep work had been done!  🙂

[Libby and Hans arrived next.  They were co-hosts back in the early days and it’s still Hans’s job to carve the turkey.  He is also known in this blog as the guy who took the great black and white photos of Uncle Dick in the early 70’s.]

[Hans checks the bird.  Dan puts the 25-pounder in about 6:30 am each year.  To our knowledge, it’s only day of the year this night owl arises before 10:00.]

[Pre-dining discussions begin.  So, what have you done in the past year?]

[Meanwhile, back in the kitchen.  The entire place smells yummy!  🙂 ]

[We’re old – but we still know how to text, tweet, et al.]

[Is it ready?]

[Hey, check on the Michigan game!]

[We must have eaten already – here come the pies!  And there was a 2nd pumpkin pie!  🙂  In addition the turkey, The Great One’s annual specialties include mashed potatoes and gravy (of course), sweet potatoes, two kinds of cranberries, three kinds of dressing, and baked corn.  No one went home hungry.  (Thank goodness, because I never noticed the Albany DQ on the way home!)]

[Clean-up begins!  The supervisor gets the carcass every year.  By the very next day we were enjoying turkey vegetable soup.]

In order to give fair and balanced reporting, the next several photos are from the 2007 event.  Thus, in an attempt to cover everyone . . .

[Just to bring sports back into the picture (so to speak), this is the daughter of the guy standing at the kitchen counter in the above photo.  She was the starting center for DeLaSalle’s state tournament team a couple of years ago.] 

Wrapping up, after 40+ years of this event, the participants are now of such an age that they no longer drink.  The beverage of choice is diet Root Beer.  Arrghhhh!  Fortunately, the supervisor and I bring our own fermented grape – well aware that wine is much healthier for you than . . . POP?

[Happy Thanksgiving all!  🙂 ]

[We had a beautiful sunset on the 7th!]

[I was shocked – SHOCKED – to see ice forming on beautiful Lake Darling when I got home from the gym on Monday.  Seems way too early – and hasn’t been that cold, until . . .  The last two days have been cold enough for ice making, but I didn’t think it was to the Ice Age stage yet.  Girls hockey starts this week, so otherwise all else is right with the world.  And it’s the prettiest season of the year!  😉  (Which reminds me – a member of the Fat Boys Walking Club noted this morning, as we were all marveling at arriving at the gym this in zero degree wind chill, that he knows a retired couple here who can afford to go around the world as many times as they want yet stay here all winter. When asked why, they say because they like it.  Shocking.)]