Pima Street Hockey in Anthem, Arizona

PIMA STREET vs ANTHEM, Saturday April 18, 2009

Written by Swiss Dan

For our first away game ever, we went to Anthem, North of Phoenix, in order to play the local team in their beautiful rink. The rink is large, they play with a very bouncy puck, and their goals are larger. We saw the return of the Tominator in our goal. The rest of the team consisted of Bob, Chris, Daniel, Duke (all the way from Vegas!), Erick, Erin, Gordie (for the 1st period), Marcus, and Tim.

The game started quickly, and Chris started off the scoring with a high shot into the corner of the net which was quickly followed by a low by Tim (setup by Gordie’s behind-the-net hustle) 2:0 for us! But then we experienced many problems. The size of the rink, and the difficulty of many of us to control the puck caused us to score two goals on our own net as we were getting the hang of things. Tom did a great job and he made many saves, but Anthem came back and even took the lead, 2:3. Then we scored one, and we stopped for the first (well deserved!) break.

I think many of us played a bit better in the second period. Erin played tough in defense, Marcus caught many pucks, Bob was a rock that was hard to go around. Chris played great on offense and Tim had impressive raids around several Anthem players (though had trouble keeping control of the bobbling puck long enough to get off solid shots). On the other hand, we were getting tired with many less subs than Anthem. The game was always pleasant, despite occasional tough play. Clearly, both teams wanted to win! The score stayed close throughout, never more than 2 goals apart. At the end of the period, we were trailing 7:8 and had lost Duke to a sprained ankle injury.

It was then agreed that the first team to reach 10 will be the winner. The last period saw much offense, with many 3 on 2 in either direction, as the offense players were too tired to get back quickly. Both goalies did a great job and it was hard to score. We did score two, going ahead 9:8. Both teams had many occasions, hitting the post or the crossbar, Anthem scoring one. 9:9, the game is damn close! We had our chances of scoring the last goal, but we missed, and Anthem eventually won, 9:10!!!

I think we all played great. Special mention to Tim (amazing to watch, 6 goals), to Chris (3 goals), and last but not least, to the Tominator for a very solid game. Thanks to Anthem for their invitation to play against them, and for the beer and pizza. We had a nice time in the pub next door afterwards.

We look forward to continuing this rivalry and plan on monthly games where we take turn making the commute.  Next game, May? in Tucson!