All the Wildcats had to do tonight to ensure our spot in the playoffs, was sit back and let Chelmsford lose (which they did, by the way, 8-2 :))
But sod that, just because we were playing the cup winning Bracknell Bees, and just because we were missing a couple of our best players (Wheats and Matty Davies), doesn't mean we should roll over.
Oh no, we won tonight, and we deserved that win so much, and ENJOYED it so much!!!
We came out of the traps slowly, and were 0-2 down at the start of the first, boooooo. The Bees fans were looking 10 shades of smug.
But from the 2nd period onwards, we were on fire. The lads threw themselves into the game with heart and soul, and it paid off big time.
By the end of regulation we had pulled it back to a 3-3 tie. Into overtime we went. And we didn't let up the pressure once during that 5 minutes. Even had a couple of almost goals (unfortunately disallowed). We so deserved to win. We wanted it so much more than the Bees, there was real passion at work on the ice.
And the shootout was a beauty. First time we have actually won one this season, I think. Well done to Joel, Crazy, and most of all Ciaran Long who deked the Bees goalie gooooooooood before winning us the game with a very pretty goal indeed.
You should have seen the team celebrating the win on the ice, all of them, and Pete Russell too, jumping up and down like excited schoolgirls.
And they weren't the only ones, I was certainly jumping too.
Great game, absolutely great game.
And the icing on the cake? It was Janak's turn to do autographs after the game, along with Jan Vrtik, so I got my jersey signed :)
Tomas was in such a great mood, all laughing and joking about, he kept tickling the kids, and he drew all over Ben's face with his (permanent, oops!) pen :)
He also really took his time with the signature on my jersey, which I really appreciated, he usually just does a little squiggle and the #41
I bet the lads are still celebrating in Blades Bar, and they absolutely deserve it.
Gutted I am going to miss the last game of the regular season :( But I have PLAYOFF games to see when I get home - yeee haawww!!!!
Now all we need to do is get the Canucks to clinch their place!
And this just in....some helpful soul has posted video of the shootout up on Youtube:
If you can't sit through it all, at least fast forward to the last minute or so to see Ciaran's purty goal ("why is he taking the shot???" that's why :D ) and the team group hug - brilliant :)
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