KC Scouts Select Friendly Tournament- Day 1

KC Scouts Select vs Pepsi Stars Select

Game 1 - Scouts 3  Stars 1

Game 2 - Scouts 2  Start 4

It's a Tournament Weekend at the Bowman house. What does this mean? It means that there will be no sleeping in, no lounging around pretending that I have no responsibilities, and no having a weekend focused entirely on me. (Something seems very wrong with this picture...) What this does mean is that we will be up early, driving to St. Joe and spending our day doing what we love - PLAYING HOCKEY! (or in my case, tying skates, taking pictures, drinking hot chocolate to stay warm, and blogging until all hours of the night, because tomorrow I will be doing this all over again!)

About 2 weeks ago, I was adding new music to my iPod and synced it to my computer at home, which isn't the computer I normally sync it to. In the process, I lost all of my playlists and almost lost all of my music. (Note to everyone, if I offer to help you with your iPods, walk away...) So, when we got  in the car this morning, Alex had set up the iPod with a new playlist for Hockey - so we had all the awesome rock songs to listen to while we drove up to St. Joe for the games. Anyone on I-29 north bound probably saw me jamming to Def Leppard and AC/DC - it was AWESOME! I'm starting to think this is more for me than him, but it does get the blood flowing and the adrenaline pumping!

We had 2 games today - our first game we wore our grey jerseys, and our 2nd game we wore our green jerseys.

That puck isn't coming past this line...

The KC Scouts played a GREAT game! They were very evenly matched with the Stars, but they definitely showed them who was boss on the ice. Select Hockey is much more physical than House Hockey - as a result, you tend to see more and harder checking, and sometimes more penalties. Today was no different! In fact, the Stars had 1 player that was in the penalty box for 10 minutes rather than the standard 2! WOW!
Our guys spent their share of time in the penalty box, but thankfully, Alex wasn't one of them.

Alex has become very aware of the negative impact the penalty box has on his total points, so he does a great job of staying as far away from there as possible. (I still think he wants to end up in there, he just doesn't want to get yelled at...)

T

2 Scouts against 1 Star

Listening to the coach

At the end of the first game, the boys were feeling very confident because the Stars only scored 1 goal on them! What a great game! Even the referee's were saying that this was one of the better games they had refed in a while!
Little did they know that only a 30 minute break would come back to bite them...

Game 2
When the boys got back on the ice, I think they thought it was going to be a gimme that they would win. Unfortunately, the Stars didn't exactly feel the same way...

Alex is ready for the puck drop

From the time the game got started, the  Stars were doing a great job of controlling the puck. Our boys got tired very quickly and it showed. They played a great game, but they quickly realized that there might be a chance that this wasn't going to be a guaranteed win...
There were more penalties in this game than in the last - not sure what that was all about, but it was almost funny. As the photographer, I stand right in the middle of the 2 teams, so when the coaches start yelling at the boys on the ice, I can hear most of what is being said. (even in my semi-deaf state - which tells you how loud these coaches yell). As the game went on, our coaches were yelling louder and louder - and the Stars coaches weren't yelling nearly as much... Hmmmm....

Alex made good use of his time on the ice. He made sure he was where he was supposed to be, he went after the puck when he needed to, and he stayed out of the biggest kid's way as much as he could. (This was the part that made me happy...) This kid was HUGE! I've seen him take kids out before. I was hoping to avoid this situation today...LOL!

In the end, our boys did a great job, but they wore themselves out. Tomorrow, we play them again. After a good nights sleep and another chance to get up early on a weekend, we will all be ready to take the ice and show them who is boss...

Or in Alex's case, who looks really cool with green laces...

That's all for now. Stay warm - there will be more updates after tomorrow's games, so until then, stay out of the Penalty Box!