Friday - in detail

I hope you enjoyed the "live" updates, but I thought I'd take a moment and give a more detailed synopsis of Friday's events. Most of us were up bright and early, as we had planned on hopping the 8:30am bus from the Eagle River Inn and Resort. The "most" of us that were up mosied down to the lobby and dined on the continental breakfast there. I've never figured out what is so "continental" about danishes, cereal, and bagels, but it seems to be a universal theme at hotels. Anyway, it was filling, and not bad. Joe broke the toaster, but, being the engineer he is, fixed it when he figured out that the breaker just tripped.

The bus idea fell by the wayside as we decided to head on over in the cars to check in. The 21+ team played first today, and "most" of the 40+ team was ready to head over, too. (Okay, just so you're not wondering, the two stragglers were John and Mac.) We all got registered and headed over to get our first glimpse of the pond. Seeing the 20 rinks laid out in front of us as we emerged from the woods by the lake was pretty cool. Speaking of cool, the temperature in the morning was great. Cold, but no wind to speak of, and not too cold.

The first obstacle was finding a spot to change in the warming tent. It was rather crowded and chaotic. After lacing up, the next challenge was getting to our rink. The ice pathways were rough - I mean really rough. I was out of breath by the time I got rinkside, and thankful that I didn't fall on my head as I had seen several other people do. We scraped the ice down, and quickly found out that the rink itself was almost as rough as the pathways. This was going to be interesting.

The 21+ team did rather well for 7-8 minutes of the first 15-minute half. The score remained 0-0, and we seemed to be generating some scoring chances. Then the other team got serious - or we got tired - whatever the reason, they opened some whoop-ass on us. We did manage to score one goal in the first half - which, unfortunately, was the only goal of the game for us. We lost 19-1.

After collecting our pride, we headed over to the rink where the 40+ guys were to play. As we were congregating, one of the USA Hockey reps introduced a reporter to us that was there to do a piece on the tournament. She apparently had requested an interview with a team that was fun and had some character, and naturally, they thought of us. She talked to me for a few minutes, then got some additional footage of us horsing around. She wanted some filler shots of people skating, so Buddha obliged. Then Joe showed him up by doing a hockey stop and spraying the camera. My interview, as well as the footage of the team, ended up on the evening news. You can read the story and see the video at this address:

http://www.triadhockey.com/images/Ice%20Holes%20Images/WLJW%20Interview%20320x240.wmv

(I have had trouble getting this to play using Firefox. Internet Explorer seems to work fine.)

Just click on the video link on the right side of the page to see the video.

The 40+ guys then had their first game. I'd like to say they fared better, but it was not to be. They pretty much got smoked, too. Although we tried to warn them about how difficult the ice was today, they really had to experience it for themselves to get the full effect. At one point, Buddha hobbled over to the snow bank and gasped, "Water!" Of course we didn't have any water, but we offered him a beer. Erik's friend Kent (or OK, as he was dubbed - for "Other Kent") was a big help. Most of their scoring was attributable to him in their first game.

I don't know what their final score was, but it was a lot to a little. Feeling pretty humbled, we decided to soak our egos in the free beer we got with our registration, and eat some hot dogs. During the interrum between our morning and afternoon games, we struck up conversations with the other teams around, including one of the women's teams - the Checkahoes. Creative name. I think our hometown Hookers would feel right at home at the tournament.

"mmmm...beer"

Around 1:15pm, Joe starting shouting and waving frantically. We were a little worried he was having an epileptic seisure at first, but then we realized he was trying to tell us that Lord Stanley had arrived. Well, at least his cup. We quickly rounded up the team and headed to the tent to get our picture taken. It's a good thing we got it done early - the line later was terrible. I think the early arrival threw some people's timing off. It really wasn't supposed to arrive until 2pm. Although I have seen it up close before, it's always a thrill to stand next to hockey's Holy Grail. I think there is room on the bottom ring for the Ice Holes' names to be inscribed.

For our afternoon game, the 21+ group came up with some strategies. We would stick one guy in net and make an effort to sub out the other three a little quicker. When we asked Kent to hang back in net, he tried to get out of it by throwing himself on the ice and claiming his hip was broken. Our strategy worked out a little better for us in this game. We only lost 11-2. The 40+ team played right after us, so we packed up and moved over to the other rink. The 40+ guys' second game went better. They started off a little slow, but then really started putting the puck in the net. In between falling over the snow bank and nearly decapitating Georgia on the sidelines, Mac managed a hat trick. And Joe was a maniac. He, too, had a hat trick, and almost had a fourth goal as the time expired. If the game had gone on for another 5 minutes, most of the guys would have been dead. But had the game gone on for 3 more minutes, they might have tied it up. Their final score was 16-12.

We were packing up one of the cars, and Buddha and Joe headed back to the main parking to get the other two cars. They ended up getting a lift on a snowmobile, which they thought was all right. Back at the hotel, most of the gang headed for the hot tub. Some of us swam a little, just to loosen up those tired muscles. There were some other hockey teams in the pool area when we first arrived, but Mac scared them off with his Speedo.

As I blogged earlier, we ate dinner at Nero's - an Italian restaurant. It was very good. Not inexpensive, but very good food. Many of us sampled the Spotted Cow beer - a local Wisconsin brand. Let me state that cheese is apparently not the only thing Wisconsin is good at. Speaking of cheese - I must say I have been a little disappointed in the apparent lack of it on the menus. I certainly didn't expect a cheese tray at every seating, but I haven't seen much attention devoted to the stuff at all. Maybe the whole "cheese head" thing is a bit overstated.

After dinner, we headed up the road to a place locally known as "the Dome" or "the Barn". It's Wisconsin's oldest indoor skating rink. It's a fantastic rink. Small enough so the crowd really feels like they are right in the game. Which, at times, is literal, seeing as the high glass and puck restraint systems seen in most pro rinks nowadays is virtually absent in the Dome. We watched the local team, the Falcons, take on the Bears, from a neighboring town. The local rivalry was palpable, and we witnessed a lot of colorful characters rooting for their respective favorites. Even Kent (the special one) got caught up in the moment and took some time to heckle the players and officials.

All in all, it was a great day. A little more success on the ice would've been icing on the cake, but I've got no complaints. Both teams have one more game tomorrow. The 21+ guys play first, at 12:15pm, followed by the 40+ guys at 1pm. Seeing as we're out of the free beer, I guess we'll need to make a stop by the convenience store on the way to the pond.