Written by After some wonderful late-nights visiting with family and friends over the the past few days, there wasn’t a soul in my house that wanted to rise and shine this morning. Not on the morning after Christmas. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what we did.
Then, after clearing the driveway of snow, it was time for a little ride down to Hudson, NH for a game against the Northern Cyclones. So far this season, the 2010 Flames had been snake-bit in the offensive end against the Cyclones, a feisty, good skating team that is committed to playing a 200-foot game. On the day after Christmas though, the Flames were able to score a goal in each of the three periods to skate away with a well deserved 3-1 win on the Cyclones home ice.
The Flames skate off after their 3-1 victory in Hudson, NH. The day after Christmas 2021.
I mentally noted that I thought the Flames had played pretty near exceptional for about 35 minutes. Then some slow moving feet started to allow the Cyclones a run of control in the game. After a short lull, the Flames were able to regain some urgency and picked up their collective pace before the lead changed hands.
Back in the first period, Sean McGee scored on a feed from Caleb Powers to put the Flames on the board, 1-0. Each team killed a penalty in the first period, and both teams certainly had scoring chances. Garrett Warren ripped a shot off of the crossbar only to see puck carom back into the crease and end the scoring bid. The Flames would hold the lead at 1-0 after one.
The Flames get their final assignments for the Cyclone Expedition prior to the opening face-off.
The second period was proportionately as short as the third period would end up being long. There weren’t a lot of stoppages and there was one stretch of four plus minutes with no whistles. The Flames did score in the period though. Teddy Beal fired the puck well wide of the net and it bounced off of the end boards to Cam Desruisseaux who quickly fired a shot toward the net. The shot was beautifully redirected by Gavin Petrie in the slot and the puck found the back of the net. I did talk with Teddy and Cam at length after the game and they both humbly admitted that they had talked at the intermission about Teddy shooting wide to set up Cam with the puck while telling Gavin, “Just go to the net”. Then I told the boys that I believed both of them and in the idea of Santa Claus. Anyway, that was about it for the period. Both teams had their breaks but nobody could tickle the twine and the Flames held a 2-0 lead after two.
This is just another face-off picture from the bleachers in Hudson. Might I add this funfictional fact? The red seats in the bleachers at Hudson were originally “school desk seats” for first graders in a one-room schoolhouse in the original Dunstable Land Grant.
The third period saw the Flames not able to score on a 5-on-3 power play, thanks to several great saves by Cyclone goaltending. There were also a few offside plays allowed to slide mixed in with a passel of penalties that were not called on anyone but my personal perception. During the third period the Cyclones beefed up their attack and simultaneously the Flames played a couple shifts with their skate guards on. The home team did put one puck over the goal line on a play that several witnesses said the puck was kicked in to the net. Since there is no review of calls at this level of hockey the coaches asked for one anyway. So we all stared at the ceiling for a moment and saw a hologram of Vince McMahon appear where he declared the play a good goal and inexplicably yelled, “You’re Fired!” Regardless, the game was now a 2-1 game with half a period left to play. Will Rosenbeck made a few brilliant saves down the stretch to keep the Flames in the lead. These saves are at the end of the game and easiest to recall, and they were huge! Earlier in the game while much was still to be decided, Travis Ingalls made some impressive saves for the Flames himself. The goaltending tandem was excellent again today.
The changing of the guard. Travis skates off, Will skates on. Meanwhile, Big Brother’s Big Sister encourages anyone to “Just walk in”.
Then before it was all done Andy Soucy fed a puck back to Alex Panitz at the right point. Panitz wound up and ripped a slapper at the net. The puck took off and ramped up and off of a defenseman’s stick to find the soft strings at the back of the net to give the Flames a 3-1 lead. The Cyclones pulled their goalie with about a minute left in the game but not much happened except for everyone looking at the clock every 3.1 seconds and wondering just how fast or slow does time actually travel. The Flames held on for an impressive, 3-1 victory over a good team, after an excellent effort.
Team Scoring: Sunday morning at Cyclones Arena.
Cyclones: 0-0-1 = 1
Flames: 1-1-1 = 3
Flames scoring: McGee from Powers, Petrie from Desruisseaux and Beal, Panitz from Soucy.
Travis Ingalls (0 goals allowed) and Will Rosenbeck (1 goal allowed) both played very well in big moments from start to finish, and were an integral part of the Flames win in Hudson.
Sunday’s game was the only one of the weekend for the Flames with Christmas still holding some importance in the sequence of events, thank God. The Flames return to the ice about 17 times this week. I would explain it to you but I would need an abacus, an algorithm, and some acetaminophen.
Truly, sincerely, I do hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. If there was ever a day to honor, remember, and promote the greatest gift ever given, Christmas would be that day.
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- I was so inspired by the Flames win that I went home and stood outside by a bunch of bent over birches and a huge puddle of slush for 3 and a half hours…
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- …until the skies opened up a bit and this glorious scene unfolded for a few minutes. Then I remembered maybe I should just count my blessings and be glad I was present for this moment. So I did.