Early and Often – 2010 Flames in SC

October 13, 2024 – Early and Often – 2010 Flames in SC:

The final day of the Palmetto State Fall Classic Tournament started very early for the 2010 Flames. They arrived at the Carolina Ice Palace by 6:30 am after getting back to the hotel after 10:45 pm on Saturday night.

Outside the Caroline Ice Palace the sun had risen enough to see the glow climbing higher and higher to brighten the hues to blue. © 1inawesomewonder 2024.

After the Flames got back to the hotel on Saturday night the chaotic ‘scurrying about’ to get the players fed began. Okay, it wasn’t too bad but some pizzas didn’t find their way to the hotel until midnight. It was a late night especially considering that the team had to be back at the rink by 6:30 am the next morning. Or, in about 6 hours after everyone was back in their rooms for good.

I got to thinking about Saturday, and the sense of frustration I had over watching our kids having so much trouble on the ice. Trouble with individual coordination and synchronization of the lines, the D, the team on the ice. I wasn’t thinking about it in a derogatory way, but more of a patient puzzled way.

It seemed to me, more like a team fully engaged in a massive growth spurt. Where arms and legs are further from the command center and a little less in control then they were 6 months ago. All while trying to figure out how to maneuver skillfully at top speed. Pucks in skates. Pucks on the toe or heel of the blade and no conceivable way to get the black disc to settle into the sweet belly of the blade for a quick shot.

I still believe that this part of their collective game will get better and better from week to week. The team is made up of nearly the same roster as last season with only two players that didn’t return, and two new players added. As this season’s version of the 2010 Flames plays on the ice, they are identifying their leaders and support roles among the group.

It was early, but the 2010 Flames had plenty of support in the bleachers. © 1inawesomewonder 2024.

Through the 3 games in the tournament so far, the Flames had amassed 96 shots on goal in 117 minutes of play. Each game being 3, 13-minute periods. They had only faced 65 shots against them. As it would turn out, they had played the two best teams in the group in their first two games.

Over the course of the first three games, the 2010 Flames were 0-2-1. 2 goals scored. 8 goals allowed.

The goals allowed were in their first two games and went something like this:

1. Shorthanded goal allowed on a 2-on-0 break with a great save and uncontested rebound.
2. 5-on-3 Power play goal allowed on a perfect shot under the bar.
3. A back breaking goal scored with speed around the edge of the D with 15.1 seconds left in the 2nd period after tying the game just seconds earlier.
4. Breakaway goal as the skater was in all alone behind the Flames defenses.
5. Shorthanded goal after a deke or two to get by a pair of defenders who were back on D.
6. Power play goal, 2on2 rush with a clean shot from the slot.
7. Shorthanded goal, pure speed, beat everyone around the corner and finished on the fly.
8. Power play goal from the slot.

8 goals allowed on 65 shots (.877 save rate, not terrible). But the manner of the goals allowed made them all feel like they counted double. 3 shorthanded goals allowed. 3 power play goals allowed. 2 other breakaway-esque goals. At even strength, the Flames had scored 0 goals and allowed only two goals.

On the other side of the coin, the Flames had faced good goaltending, but I am not sure it was as good as the numbers might suggest. 94 saves on 96 shots?!?! That’s a .9792 rate! Elite, plus, plus. Dominik Hašek has the best save percentage of all-time, at .9223 (career), and he is in the hockey Hall of Fame. Did the Flames shooting have anything to do with it?

The best fans of the team. Family. © 1inawesomewonder 2024.

Game 13 of the season.

Early and Often – 2010 Flames in SC:

Game 4: Palmetto State Fall Classic

Palace Rink (Carolina Ice Palace)

Scoring:

• 2010 Flames: 04 – 01 – 00  = 05
• Atlanta Fire: 00 – 00 – 01 = 01

Shots:

• 2010 Flames: 15 – 24 – 08  = 47
• Atlanta Fire: 02 – 04 – 14 = 20

Penalties:

1. Booth – Roughing.
2. Drumm – Trip.

The Flames final game of the tournament started at 7:10 am. By 7:20 am, the Flames had the lead. Early and often. On the power play, the puck worked back to Powers at the point. He sent the puck into the corner where Destani moved the puck to Ouellette. Ouellette took a shot on goal from the side but the save was made. There was a rebound to the weak side, and Giampa was there to tap it in for the goal. The Flames had a 1-0 lead. PPG – Giampa from Ouellette and Destani.

On the next shift the 2010 Flames were in the zone with the puck again. The defense made a clearing attempt but Santitto kept the puck in and also fired a shot through traffic. Destani got his stick on the puck and thought he had scored perhaps, but the puck slid to the edge of the crease. This is where Warren swatted the puck into the net. Even – Warren from Destani and Santitto. GWG.

A few minutes later the Flames turned a dump into a treasure. They had dumped the puck deep and forechecked behind it. Petrie got underneath a much bigger defender and forced a turnover along the wall. Giampa was on the half wall just waiting for the trap to be sprung. The puck slid to him and he passed to Destani who was circling in hopes of this exact scenario. Destani cut to the net and shot. The puck hit the D or the goalie, or both, but Petrie was right there to slide the puck into the net for the goal. Great play out of a basic play, well executed. Even – Petrie from Destani and Giampa.

Just prior to an offensive zone face-off Drumm appeared to be making a plan with Ouellette, both were on D. Soucy won the face-off clean. The puck came back to Drumm but against the boards. So there was no pass to Ouellette. Instead, he calmly banked a pass ahead to Warren off of the boards. Warren was at the half wall with a lot of room to shoot. So, he shot. He fired a low wrister that looked like it beat the goalie under his right arm. Or it got through the five-hole. Either way, the Flames had another first period goal and led, 4-0. Even – Warren from Drumm and Soucy.

The 2010 Flames scored their final goal of the tournament on a play that looked like it might be a good chance for the Atlanta Fire. But their shot was blocked by Ouellette. The puck bounced in the middle of numbers, 6, 7, and 36. With Destani emerging from the cluster with the puck. Destani immediately accelerated through his gears en route to the O zone.

He lost the puck, sort of, but retrieved it in time to set up Drumm trailing the play. Petrie had covered Drumm’s D spot as Drumm made a run toward the slot. Drumm ripped a shot and the rebound bounced right to Beal on the doorstep. Beal slipped the rebound into the net via his backhand. Even – Beal from Drumm and Destani. 5-0.

The Long Road Home

It was another beautiful day in Charleston. The tournament games were over for the Flames. The team was back the team hotel by 10 am. So began the long road home.

By Sunday evening most of the 2010 Flames hockey family was at the airport, already on a flight home, or well into their drive back to NH. Not everybody, but most. That was it. Likely the last travel hockey tournament of this hockey family sort was over.

It was a great trip. Charleston, SC is great place to visit. It would take me a year of living there to see all that I would like to see in that area, maybe longer. Everyone I spoke with enjoyed their time in Charleston.

For me, I left TopGolf Charleston at 3 pm. A good portion of the team and their families were hitting golf balls and enjoying some nourishment before heading to the airport. I was in our heavily loaded van headed toward Virginia.

After a well thought out collaborative effort, the van was loaded. 5 hockey bags, goalie pads, bag of pucks, first aid kit, dry erase board, the team’s sticks, and all of our family stuff was in the van. The plastic sheet and wrap idea worked wonderfully. No candles were needed. Thank you. © 1inawesomewonder 2024.

I checked into my hotel in Lynchburg, VA at 930 pm, or thereabouts. I sat down and watched some playoff baseball while making notes, reviewing notes, and watching video from the 2010 Flames games in SC.

After a good enough rest it was time to get up and drive the remaining 730-ish miles home. It was the second Monday in October, a holiday that we never seem to get right.

Most of the drive was pretty laid back. Not too much traffic, but the groups on the roads were growing larger. Gathering like a traffic storm as roads funneled people into New England from all points west and south.

By 3-something in the afternoon, on a packed I-84, with many pursuing personal bests in land speed records my tire pressure light suddenly came on. Almost immediately I felt a difference in the control of the van. I used my remote side view mirrors and angled them way down. This showed me that my rear tire on the driver’s side was getting flatter by the second.

I had to get to the shoulder of the highway while completely surrounded by cars, trucks, campers, and trailers all making a bee line for New England like it was the last day of school and the final bell had rung.

Steering was increasingly difficult as I tried to maintain speed so as not to be flattened by the racing current of traffic using all lanes and angles to advance themselves further along. I made my way to the right, to the right, to the shoulder, on an ascent. I didn’t have a lot of choices. I had to get over before the guardrail started or I would have been pinned nearly in a lane.

I got off the shoulder as far as I could. The ground to my right fell away quickly so I had to stay on the pavement. My flat tire was on the side closest to the traffic. That wasn’t great. I was almost exactly halfway between Exit 61 and Exit 65. So, I was two miles away from the closest exit.

I decided immediately that I had to get me and my vehicle off this highway before both were destroyed. There was no chance I was going to unload stuff from the van so I could get to my spare, jack, tire iron, etc. Not right there. Not then.

It wasn’t clear to me until this highway scenario played out why exactly I had traveled all the way to South Carolina and most of the way back with my Ryobi Tire Inflator and two 18V batteries. Then and there, I knew that God had prompted such luggage on my trip.

I pumped up the flat tire with the battery powered inflator. It took a very long time to get the tire up to even 16-17 psi. While I was depressing the button with my left hand, I was facing the down the hill at the oncoming traffic. I had flipped my hat around backward so the turbulence created by trailer trucks and traffic exploding past me didn’t blow my hat into Connecticut.

I was praying the entire time.

At one point I watched as a trailer truck had come screaming down the hill opposite the one I was partially up and worked it’s way toward the slow lane. Toward the shoulder. Toward me.

All passenger side tires on the cab and the trailer inched over the white line at somewhere around 70 mph. I looked at the driver for a split second. He had no idea I was there, or the van was there, or the shoulder was there, or even the beginning of the guardrail just ahead.

There was a speeding vehicle a few feet in front of him, and another a few feet behind. I had nowhere to go. The wind was so strong from such a close call that me, my hat, and my tire inflator were all knocked over. We went over like dominoes.

But the truck had narrowly missed us. Thank God.

I got the tire to 17.5 psi. My boldness was now about as high as it gets. I put the cap on the stem and was determined to get out of harms way. I was going to will that tire and my loaded van two miles in the throng to the next exit.

Somehow, maybe miraculously, I melded into the traffic and made it to Exit 65. Of course there was construction right off of the exit with lane closures. This forced me into a make shift dirt lane that was better suited for my grandfather’s Farmall Tractor than it was any vehicles getting off the exit.

Within a mile I had turned onto a lesser road, with a market, and a place to park away from the traffic frenzy. I was now inadvertently stranded in the lot of Brewster Camerons Deli in Brewster, NY. The wind was whipping, 20-30 mph, and the ‘feels like’ temperature was in the upper 30’s.

Fortunately, the deli and market was not only open 24 hours, they had fresh hot coffee and a clean bathroom.

It took awhile, but I got several things unloaded from the van so that I could drop the spare from under the van and retrieve the jack and tire iron. The tire was as flat as flat gets.

I tried the inflator again, just to see if any air would stay in the tire. Nope. I couldn’t get the pressure above 5 psi. It was a miracle that I had made it 3 miles (2 on the highway and 1 to get past the construction to the deli lot).

As my fortune would unfold, I was able to get the first four lug nuts loose and removed. The final lug nut as it turned out, was damaged, and my little ‘packed in the back of a minivan’ tire iron would just slip off the lug nut whenever I applied torque in trying to loosen it. This caused some bloody knuckles as my cold hands would slam against the wheel as the iron rolled off.

Of course I tried every conceivable angle and started the iron at each turn on the lug nut just in case I could get that lug nut loose. But that didn’t happen. I called AAA and was told it would be 2 hours before anyone could get to me due to the traffic back-ups on I-84 and in the area. I could already see a 27 minute backup on Google Maps just beyond the exit I had limped to.

Fortunately, the AAA driver got to me in only 90 minutes. He said a tow was out because any places nearby that could get me a new tire were all closed or closing in the next few minutes. I was 208 miles from home. A tow to NH was possible but would have to wait until the next day. I am sure he also wanted to get back to the traffic and much bigger tow options on that evening.

So, we used his tools with a much deeper socket to get the final lug nut loose. It took about 4 seconds. We got the spare (donut) on the van, and the driver tightened the lug nuts. Then he made sure the tire was properly filled with air. We discussed my route home.

He said the mileage on the spare should be fine as long as I kept the speeds at 50 mph or less. He suggested taking the highway with my hazards on. That way I could sit in the traffic and speed wouldn’t be a problem.

I thanked him, gave him a tip, and got in the van to warm up, pray, and think.

Ultimately, I decided to avoid the race track that was the highway home. I opted a 220 mile route that avoided highways. I only hit 50 mph a couple times, coming down steep hills. It took me 5 hours and 45 minutes to get home. But I got home, with all the gear of our favorite players, safe and sound.

I pulled into our yard a few minutes before midnight. I had left the hotel in Lynchburg at 7 am. I had taken the long road home. But I was home. Safe. Prayers answered.

Mooney’s Moonshots

So this is why I call these Mooney’s Moonshots. Well, the name Mooney, that already gets us headed in the right direction. Then there is this. Moonshot. While ‘moonshot’ originally meant “long shot”, it’s increasingly being used to describe a monumental effort and a lofty goal—in other words, a “giant leap”. Moonshot is also used to describe a towering home run. And home run is a large gain, or popular success. So ya, I like Mooney’s Moonshots because it stands for all of that.

Thank you for the time you spend to take the pictures and go through them, load them, and then freely share them.

Here are some awesome pictures from the Flames win, Early and Often – 2010 Flames in SC:

SC Game Four

You can find more 2010 Flames material in these pieces, here. 2010 Manchester Flames.

The current look at my ‘hockey office’. So many hours spent in this space, tracking numbers and capturing season after season. (C) 1inawesomewonder 2023.

The beginning of every article. (C) 1inawesomewonder 2017.

The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the individual contributors, mostly mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the schools, coaches, players, or characters listed in any of these blog posts. Or, maybe they do, but you would have to ask them directly.

Either way, “It’s a great day for hockey” ~ the late “Badger” Bob Johnson.