Wednesday 3rd September
With the arrival of Game Day came achy joints, tired muscles and CATHERINE (who got here after the game). Topics of the day for rink training included perfecting our power play, working on our face offs and penalty kills. Kate Mo sustained a lower body injury during morning training. A blow to the team as this meant that we would be short one defence-woman. Despite having never played defence before, Caris stepped happily into Kate’s place and did the team proud.
An early lunch prevented any unexpected cases of nervous nausea on the ice! We arrived at the rink with time to spare and it was a proud moment to don the Irish Jersey that had never before been worn by an Irish Ladies Team – history in the making. After a quick warm up we lined up facing our opponents for the National Anthems. The game consisted of three 15 minute periods, stop clock. Particular strengths included our penalty kill, which was executed well following pre-match preparation. A second strength was our power play with over half of our shots happening during power plays. Unfortunately due to impressive goal tending we were unable to convert any of our opportunities into goals. The game finished 4-0.
Taking into account that it was our first time to play together as a team, there was an expected level of nervousness and we took a period of time to settle into the game. Many lessons were learned, in particular the need to work together and communicate. However looking to the weekend and our first games of the tournament tomorrow, we aim to be positive, confident and most of all a TEAM!
P.S Note to players, REMEMBER TO TAKE OFF YOUR SKATES GUARDS BEFORE GETTING ON THE ICE!!! (Jade, Keira, Elaine…)