Not out on the limb far enough apparently! This was a hell of a game. Phantoms were looking good at 2-0 up at the end of the first period, and then 3-1 up going into the third. Big turnaround in the 3rd with three unanswered goals, and Sharks holding on for the win. Sykes, Wilson, and Roth (a double) score for Sharks, with Wilson getting the winner. Christos (a double) and King net for Phantoms. Bryant able to shut out seven shots in the last period, including a couple of big saves on Christos breakaways, Metzger unable to do the same at the other end letting in three goals off eight shots. Phantoms will be ruing a couple of shots that hit uprights at various stages in the game, and a third period where they seemed to tire and let the Sharks back into it.

Plenty of heat in the game, not too many penalties, but a real fast paced game with plenty of feeling. One player even took out his frustration at a goal by breaking his stick on the goalpost. A great game to watch.

Well it was close, but 5-3 to Beasts in the end, taking it out as B grade champions for Autumn 2007. Beasts got better as this game went on, Sedgwick, Mitchell, Honore were causing a bunch of problems for Kings, and although those three all got goals, their base was two nets by Baker and Dorset. Kings died on the breakaway, they gave the puck up in the neutral zone too much and left Beasts forwards with easy runs to the goalie. Kings goalie did well, but faced 23 shots, so that’s hard work for anyone. Kings did fairly well on attack – 3 goals from 10 shots, but spent too much time in the box in the last period to be able to drag it back.

No trophy for the winners, because there was no one there with a key to the room. Ah, whoops. We’ll give it to you some other time and you can all have your photos taken and whatnot.

That’s B grade over for Autumn 2007, cheers to all the teams and players and officials and volunteers etc.

Just some footnotes on stats and how the teams went. Ryan calls Jaimee Wood as his team’s player of the tournament. I concur, she’s a good goalie, not out of place in any of the other teams, but she’s had plenty of spirit behind her team who haven’t been top notch defensively. She’s faced almost twice as many shots as any other team’s goalie (or sets of goalies), and her save percentage is pretty good – second in the competition. Midgets will be looking forward to having her next year, as will a few more senior teams as well! Devin Williams for Kings is also an improving goalie, he had the top save percentage in the grade, and if he keeps that up might be making the step up to A grade, where shortage of goalies is a real problem.

Top goal scorer is Harrison King, and rightly so he’s playing A grade now and might be too good for his high school team in the B grade next DIHL. Top point scorer I think is James Brinsdon, with a whopping 7 points in the final game – 11 points I think he finished up with. Kings stats really stand out as having a lot of individual play. 31 goals, only two assists! That’s fine if you’ve got the players who can do it, but eventually you’re going to come up against teams who will shut that stuff down, and then a bit of passing is going to help. On that note, Johnnies played a really good team game tonight – 7 assists on 11 goals, and they’ve gotten better at that throughout the competition.

I played for Bears three times during the competition. It’s really hard to organise a competition where three teams are pre-formed and entered, and everyone who enters as an individual gets lumped into the other team. Bears caught the result of that, and just were never quite good enough. They were always a pleasure to play with and to have out there however. They racked up a grand total of four penalty minutes in seven games, including David Patchett who got plenty of respect from his kids when he got called for tripping tonight. They supported each other wonderfully and good on them for giving their all.

Johnnies fell from the high of being champions in 2006. They’re also losing their manager John Bradfield, who won’t be with the school in a few months. John’s been an enthusiastic promoter of ice hockey at John McGlashan, and we only hope that the school finds someone to fill his shoes and keep pushing the sport up on the hill. They just got better as a team as the tournament went on – some of their passing tonight was top-notch – and will take that momentum into the high schools tournament.

Kings had a good tournament, only two losses, and will be disappointed to lose the final. They’ll also take that momentum into the high school tournament, and they’ll be looking to play in the final of that – there’s a bunch of good players in their team who are all getting a lot of benefit from the DIHA coaching structure.

Beasts have stepped up as beaten finalists last DIHL, to take the absent trophy tonight. They had a good game, plenty of enthusiasm from the bench, and support each other fanatically. They’ll be very happy tonight. Beasts are turning into a bit of an ice hockey entity – they’re playing southern region now as well, and I’m sure they’ll be back next DIHL for more. They do face some decisions, as they want to stick together as a team, but as individual players get better, they, and the team gets too good for the grade. They’re going to have to think about how to deal with that for the future.

This is my last DIHL as organiser. The call is out there to find another person, or people who want to devote their time to organising the local hockey competition – either one grade, or the whole thing. Anyone who is interested can contact me. The show goes on after all.

So long and thanks for all the fish…
Kyle (3 goals, no assists, DIHL B Grade Autumn 2007)

PS: The final stats will be up once we get the wee hamster running fast enough.