Well we finally played a game. It was an exhibition game against the U18 boy's midget team in the city we play in. I guess they had a combination of the A and B team players. Anyway we won 9-2 and played very well. I think we should play teams about the midget AA level. The Olympic women's team is playing in the Provincial midget AAA league and I think they are 8-2 now and won the pre season tournament.
Our league starts next Sunday with a home game vs the Edmonton Chimos.
So we are now up to 10 forwards, 2 who can also play D and 2 D. We had 2 affiliate D in the game yesterday but they can only play for us on days their team isn't playing. We also have 3 good goalies. They all played one period yesterday.
I was going to use the 2-2-1 but the players read the game so well that I decided to go with the 2-1-2 with a pinch on a wide rim when the first checker can make contact and a 1-2-2 with a swing when they have complete control and toe caps up ice. We simply play 1-2-3-4-5.
On defense it is one on and a box behind with a low box in the slot. We use the diamond 1-3-1 on both the 5-3 and 5-4 power play and on the pk I want them to press down to start and be aggressive. The pk forecheck is a tandem I which defends from inside to outside.
We need to work on our controlled breakout the pk forecheck doing things more quickly on the pp.
Our puck support creating 2-1's was terrific and the midget boy's were confused in their coverage. They attacked us one at a time trying to go end to end and probably had only 6 scoring chances the whole game.
So if we can come up with 2 or 3 more D who are done their college careers we will be very strong.
We played our first game vs Edmonton.
Period 1; shots 11-11 score 0-0
Period 2: shots us 16 them 6 score 1-2 for Edmonton.
Period 3 shots: us 17 them 3 score 0-0.
The team played well but their goalie stoned us with some terrific saves.
We need to work on our PP and Pk and go to the net more without the puck. Aso our D must get the puck between the dots on the breakout and not be pushed to the outside.
Good all around first game. Wrong score but almost everything else was raally positive.
We play them 12 times and I am sure if we outshoot them 44-20 we will win more than we lose.