Hurricanes: 11 – Central: 1

Sometimes, where you’re faced with talents above what you’re capable of you need to look deeper into yourself and find what will work best.  Sometimes what works best still isn’t enough.  Central learned this in the past weekend’s competition.  Central, while being a great solid hockey team top to bottom, is at a somewhat disadvantage playing against select teams filled with former standout NCAA Division I & III players, a few Patty Kazmier finalists and teams from deep talent pools.  In the end it came down to the little victories.  Heart.  Soul.  Pride.  It’s working hard to do as much right as you possibly could in 45 seconds and hoping that your teammates are also doing the same on each of their shifts.  Occasionally, your best isn’t enough.  Occasionally, you just don’t have your full game no matter how much you give and it results in an 1-11 loss to the team that was a favorite to win.  The little victory?  Central scored.  The team proved that they weren’t an impenetrable force.  Maybe, if few more bounces go the other way, it wouldn’t be such an outcome.   

SoCal: 4 – Central: 0

In an interesting twist, the team came up against a team that was no better or worse than any other teams they face in their normal league– a phenomenal change from the previous routing– proved that the disparity in skill level is huge in the B division and proved that, while being out played in the previous game, Central is actually a B level team.  After having played the previous game and pushing yourself so far while still coming up short, the fear is that you don’t have enough left in the tank.  That may have been the case as the team seemed flat after giving up a fluke goal off a tip and unlucky bounce.  Again, it’s the little victories.  This game?  Getting shots on net and controlling the flow, especially during special teams play.

In the end, there are always what ifs’ and should of-would of-could of moments.  Goals you want back,  better gap controls, or pucks you should have buried but the important thing is if you tried.  Did you win the little victories?  Did you give everything you had whenever you could, even if the odds weren’t in your favor?  Did you learn something that you can take with you into the next game, where ever that is?  For Central, the answer is yes.

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