Oh, the excitement!

Nope, not Christmas excitement! Hockey excitement! (Yes, here I go again). Ds was in a hockey tournament this weekend involving PeeWee C teams from around the region. His team won both games on Friday (5-0 and 7-2) and he got an assist. Then they played a house league game on Saturday against the only undefeated team in our level, and won 3-1. And then they played a tournament game and lost 6-3, but ds scored an unassisted goal, and their tournament standings were still good enough to move on to the semi-finals on Sunday against another team from our league, who we've beaten every time so far this season.

The assistant coach gave the parents some good-natured heck a couple of weeks ago because we aren't a very loud bunch. Usually every year there's at least one parent who will shame everyone else into yelling their lungs out, who knows all the chants, who gets it going and gets it stopped with just the right timing. But not this year! We are a very reserved and quiet bunch. So to make up for that, I decided to go to Party Mart before the first tourney game to pick up some New Year's noisemakers for the fans. A great $20 investment, since by the end of the weekend, not only were we noisemaking, we were also making noise - yelling and chanting and cheering on our team. Seems someone found their inner hockey parent chant-leader voice ... yup ... that someone was me. Hey, I may not be managing this year, but I can find other ways to contribute, right??

So with our voices found and our noisemakers ready, and about 40 minutes' worth of practice earlier in the day, we hit the ice Sunday morning for the semi-finals. We were up 2-0 when the other team scored a couple of goals and tied it up. The game was fast-paced, exciting, full of shots on goal and awesome saves on both sides. At one point, ds scored but it was disallowed because the ref blew the whistle as the puck was going in because the net got knocked off its moorings (on purpose by the goalie, according to ds!). It would have been the game winner, since we ended the 3rd period with a 2-2 tie and had to go to overtime. First overtime period, 3 minutes and 4 players; no goal. Second overtime period, 3 minutes and 3 players; no goal. Went to shoot-out. 5 players from each team took their turn to shoot - no goal! By this time, the crowd was going wild. Even the most reserved parents were screaming their lungs out. The hockey moms were shaking and in bad need of a medicinal sip of vodka (no such luck). The refs had to read the rule book to see what to do next. We went to sudden death shoot-out - the first team to score, wins. Ds shot; it was blocked. The other team shot; it was blocked. The hockey moms had simultaneous heart attacks. Two more players went out on the ice. Each shot on the opposite goalie. We scored! We went wild!!! We clinched our spot in the championship later Sunday afternoon! When the heck was I supposed to do groceries!!! (that is exactly what went through my mind when they won!).

Took ds home, and he actually napped for a couple of hours. I went to the grocery store and did one of those dash-in dash-out bare-bones groceries. Went home and put them away, got ds up, and off we went again. Wish I could report we won the Championship, but try as we might, we couldn't even score a goal against this winning team. We lost 4-0, but came away with finalist trophies, pride, improved play as a team, and awesome memories.

All told, we were on the ice 7 times from Friday 2 pm to Sunday 5 pm. I am so tired this morning - and my voice is hoarse! But it was well worth it. I wouldn't trade being a hockey mom in for anything. Not even for a well-timed sip of vodka to calm my nerves!