They Won!!!

After 19 games, the last game of the season... my son's hockey team finally won a game!  My son played 17 of the games as goalie, and it's really tough to lose that many games as goalie.  He really got down on himself, and he's only 7... seeing him so disappointed is frustrating as a parent.  He needed a change, so we switched him to left wing and put one of his best friends in goal.

We didn't have high hopes for the game today, the last time we faced this team they spanked us pretty good.  None of the kids on our team can consistently lift the puck in the air above the goalie, and about half of their kids can pick a corner of the goal and hit it.  Their team scored first, we tied it up into the end of the 1st period.  At the end of the second period, we were up 3-1.  In the 3rd period, we fought off some extremely aggressive play, the first time that I have seen the team actually play defense all season.

The most exciting part was that the team really looked like a team for the first time all season.  They didn't really practice many skills this season.  The focus was much more on having a good time than winning, and the results reflected that.  For the past 2 weeks, they focused on basic skills (passing and positions), and for the first time ever we outpaced the other team on shots on goal.  They had some really good kids on the team, but none of them really knew where to be, where not to be, how to work as a team.  They played offense, but more importantly, they played defense and cleared the puck out of the defensive zone.

Yeah, the focus is on having a good time, but it sure feels good to see my son come off the ice jumping up and down happy.  What a great day, to see my son so happy to be part of a team.