05-17-2009, 09:46 PM
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#55
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Rookie
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Re: Taras Novoseltsev- BAP Goalie Story.
September the 6th
It was game day. My team and I had just flown into overnight. It was about a 3 hour plane ride, which wasn’t bad. It was more interesting to see what the guys were doing on the plane then the actual trip. Some guys played cards, I think it was poker, while I read a book in Ukrainian. A few of my teammates had asked me to go over and play poker with them, but the language barrier was too hard for me to understand. “No thank you,” was my response. When we reached Philadelphia, it was around midnight. We were all tired and wanted to go bed, but first we had to check into the hotel. We were staying at a Marriott downtown close to the Phantom’s stadium. I didn’t unpack that night when I reached my own hotel room. I just jumped into the bed and awoke the next day ready for the game fresh and relaxed.
We rode a big grey hound bus over to the Phantom’s stadium. When we got their, our roadies as they call them, took our equipment and our stuff to the locker room for us. It was quite convenient to have this service. I headed for the locker room and quickly got my pads on for the game, except I didn’t put my helmet on. Coach Byslma came into the locker room with inspirited words. “I know this is our first road game here in Philadelphia,” he paused for a moment, “and I know the crowd will be tough tonight, but let’s get out there and play our best hockey yet!” Coach Byslma clapped his hands together and told everyone to come into a circle. We would be doing a 1,2,3 let’s go chant, which I cheered loudly while doing.
It didn’t take very long for the game to start. We were hurried into the tunnels that lead into the game ice. I could hear the fans cheering loudly for their home team. We were going to get booed loudly, I thought to myself. We did our usual warm up skate to loud booing and being yelled at. I had it the worst though. After warm-ups had ended, we all skated off of the ice. My teammate Bill Thomas told the team to not worry about the crowd, and to not let it get to us. It was time for the starting lineups to be announced. Our team went first. The announcer gave the starting lineup and I was last to hit the ice. When my name was called the fans gave it to me. “YOU SUCK TARAS,” and “GET A REAL GOALIE,” were the loudest chants to be heard.
FIRST PERIOD
We lost the first faceoff which provided a nice opening for a shot by the Phantoms. When the Phantoms player shot the puck on a backhand it landed nicely into my glove for my first save of the night, but the night was just starting. Leading into just minutes into the game, the Phantoms were killing us in offensive shots. I had made save after save, until the first Phantom goal by Jonathan Matsumoto 2:36 minutes into the game. The goal was deflected off of my own defensemen. After the goal I pushed my defensemen out of the way. I was visually pissed off at my team. A few more minutes passed in the game until the Phantoms scored again. This time it was 5:57 into the game. I had locked onto the two opposing players coming towards me from the blue line. I knew the player with the puck would pass it to his teammate to make it a give and go. But the tricky part for me, was that Stefan Ruzicka slide the puck right into my 5 hole. I slammed my goalie stick onto the ice frustrated with the lack of defense on my team. I picked up my goalie stick and held it in my hands and squeezed it. I peered up at the scoreboard and watch the replay of the goal. It was now 2 to nothing for the Phantoms.
Luck came to the rescue in the form of a goal. Bill Thomas 11:33 into the game unloaded a slap shot that beat Martin Houle topside. It was now 2 to 1. I cheered by slapping the end of my stick against the ice. Soon, the luck would run out. Lars Jonsson scored at 16:39 on a top shelf goal that hit the side of my shoulder and bounced past me for a 3 to 1 lead. Three minutes later, Darren Reid got a nice feed from his teammate to make it 4 to 1 after 19:52.
BUZZZZ the horn over top of the boards indicated that it was the end of the first period. It was a disappointing score so far. I skated off of the ice with my head down and walked to the locker room. I slammed my stick down onto the ground and then my helmet off. I was upset at myself more then the team at this point. Coach Byslma walked into the room with his hands folded. “4 to 1, 4 to 1.” “Can someone tell me what the point of a hockey game is? Huh? Is it to get this puck,” Byslma picked up a puck, “into the other teams net?” “Can someone tell me if this is true.”? My teammates were nodding and said “yes coach.” “And you Taras, isn’t the goalie’s job to stop the f****** puck into going in the net.”? Coach Byslma then threw the puck against the wall, and the puck landed in the center of the locker room. “What the hell is with this team’s offensive too, we can’t seem to pass to each other, its like a bunch of idiots out there.” “Yes coach,” was the response from the players. “This second period, go out there and play like a team, not this one star bull**** I have been seeing. And the defense, protect the puck for f***sake!” Byslma’s face had turned red out of angry. “Now go out there and don’t embarrass me anymore.” Byslma slammed his notebook to the ground and told everyone to get out on the ice for the second period.
The trip through the tunnel got our heads turning. Coach’s words struck a cord in my head. Why were we playing so badly? The Phantoms weren’t a special team, we were certainly better then them.
Second Period
When my skates hit the ice, and I reached the crease of the net, my head seemed to clear from the worries. We finally won the opening faceoff and caused a stoppage of play in their zone. I was watching carefully, how our passing was getting a little better. 3 minutes had passed and we had about 3 shots in and they had 1 shot taken so far. Maybe the coach’s words had finally hit the team. Shot totals were now 17 for us, and 40 for them.
The first 7 minutes I had to make a diving stop to prevent a wrap around attempt from the Phantoms. After I stopped the puck, the ref called the play dead. We won the faceoff in our own zone and Nathan Perrot was able to take the puck unassisted to the Phantom’s net and score a goal shorthanded at 6:32. It was now Phantoms 4, us 2. We were slowly but surely coming back. All I needed to do was to protect the net. Another chance for us to score came at 7:20 when Tim Ramholt took a high-sticking penalty. “We scored!” I yelled in Ukrainian loudly, and smiled. It had only taken Ryan Stone 20 seconds to score on the power play to make the game 4 to 3 now at 7:40. We were playing like a team now. We had been taking more shots in the second period than the first, and it was good to see this improvement. We had forced three face-offs in a row, in their own zone and were passing the puck like crazy out there. A break in the game gave me the chance to look at the shot totals. We had 31 shots, that was 14 more then last time I checked. The Phantoms had 48 shots so far. There was 6:37 left in the second period and things were looking up. In 6 minutes of the game, we took another 7 shots, and the Phantoms had only taken 5.
BUZZZ went the horn again. It was the end of the 2md period, and I hadn’t let a single puck into the net that period. I was feeling better about myself. My team had scored two goals to keep the game close. We were heading into the locker room only down by 1 goal. When we got to the locker room the coach seemed a bit more happy about his team. “Good work out there boys. There seems to be a lot more improvements with our play,” he clapped his hands together. “Now, we are only down 1 goal, 1 single goal. Taras, I believe in you. I believe that you can stop the puck. Good work out there. And the defense looked a bit better with the poke check. Let’s go out in the third period and get us our first road win, and the first win of our season.” After that, we would go out to the ice with the determination to win the game.
THIRD PERIOD
I took my usual position on the ice and watched the refs hurry along to drop the puck for the third period to begin. The third period started off with the win of the faceoff. We got very lucky by having two penalties early on in the 3rd period. The first penalty came at 0:30 and was a holding penalty by Riley Cote. The second penalty came at 1:11, and was a delay of game minor by Boyd Kane. We had a 5 on 3 power play. “Come on boys,” I said in my head eager for my teammates to score the tying goal. To my disbelief the 5 on 3 would be short lived. Mark Letestu took a obstruction- hooking minor 1:22 into the game. “Damn it,” I hit my goalie stick against the ice softly. This brought the puck back to our zone.
Hard work pays off. We scored 7:17 from a deke, and a little top shelf action from Chris Minard. It was all tied up now. I raised my head up and watched the replay on the big screen. It was a beautiful goal. “Atta boy Chris,” I thought to myself as I got a drink of the Gatorade bottle. The next play at the net had my heart jumping, my own defensive came back around the net, and I was in position watching him, and as he circled the net, his stick hit me on the pads, and caused the puck to hang in the crease for a few seconds. I could see the opposing player’s eyes growing big as they saw the puck hanging their untouched. I had to act quickly, so I took the puck and passed it to my right winger, and he took the puck up the boards. My heart was still jumping. The crowd had been silent since we scored 2 goals in the 2nd period, and one in the 3rd. Then I heard the chanting going on again. “TARAS, TARAS, TARAS, TARAS, TARAS, YOU SUCK.” The fans paused each time they said my first name. Despite the chanting, we had become hungry like a shark for that 5th goal to take the lead of the game. We were attacking the Phantom goalie like crazy.
We finally took the lead of the game 13:08 into the game. It was hat trick goal for Nathan Perrot. I tried not to celebrate there on the ice, but I was smiling inside. There was only 5:24 left in the game, and nothing was getting past me. It was to late into the game to let anything past me and into the net. It didn’t end there for us, we scored another goal. This time it was David Gove 15:13 into the 3rd period. I was smiling widely underneath my goalie mask. Coach’s words had gotten to us, and we were playing to our full potential.
But sometimes bad luck has its own ways of popping up. A shot by Tim Ramholt was unloaded past me at 16:08 from a nice pass. It was a one timer that no goalie could have stopped. I guess old habits are hard to kill. My defenseman was parked in front of me and was shielding me of any sight of the puck. Then Boyd Kane shot the puck hard into the back of the net. I swept up the puck with my goalie stick and flung it hard to the blue line in disgust. All of the hard work my teammates had done was now gone.
“I lost the game.” That is all that I could think of. Then came the worst goal of all. It happened at 19:01. Mark Letestu had let a little wrist shot go that flew by my shoulder and into the back of the net. I felt ill after. I was immediately pulled with 20 seconds left on the clock. I couldn’t even face my coach.
The locker room wasn’t much better either. We each got a scolding about our play. I got it worse though. I had been named a waste of money by my coach. I couldn’t get it out of my head as I left the stadium that night. We had to catch an airplane to Manitoba for tomorrow’s game.
PENGUINS
GOALS 6
Shots: 59
TOA: 9:30
PHANTOMS
GOALS: 7
Shots 68
TOA: 7:09
Taras Novoseltsev
Shots Against = 68
Saves = 61
Save Percentage = 89.7
Goals Against = 7
GAA = 7.06
Minutes = 59.27
Last edited by TarasNovoseltsev; 05-17-2009 at 09:49 PM.
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Re: Taras Novoseltsev- BAP Goalie Story.
