Game 9. vs Madison Meteorites (H) (N)

The Shell (Madison, Wisconsin)

In the tradition of all the great player/coaches, our own Thunder Road ditched her beloved NY Giants hat for a hockey helmet and skated with the Lightning as they took on the top division Madison Meteorites.  It was a rousing sight, but there was a real part of me that felt for the other team.  In my playing days (not over yet, knock on wood) we'd always mark the player with the mis-matched jersey.  "Watch out for number 11," they'd say, pointing out the player with the practice jersey with a number 11 made out with masking tape lazily taking slapshots from the blue line. 

Since this was a non-league game the results did not matter in the WCHL standings.  But you would not have known that if you were witnessing the game.  It's a sports maxim that you rise to the level of your competition.  And so it was.  Never had I seen the Lightning skate so fast and so determined as this morning. 

Yet late in the first, they found themselves in a 2-0 hole, victimized by the garbagiest of garbage goals, the result of the Bourbon Wall having gave up some juicy rebounds and the doggedness of the red division Meteorites.  Check out how ATM (#11 for the Meteorites) unlocks herself from MJ's usually top-notch defense.



A1 showed off her natural instincts, actually making two saves and nearly making a third with a stick poke.  As many Lightning insiders know, A1 used to be in the Union.  (And you know what they say: "Once in the Union, always in the Union.  That is, until your significant other convinces you to sell your damned stinky pads that are takin' up all the closet space and don't even think about it puttin' it in the space above the garage cuz I'm convertin' it into a yoga studio.")



But then the Bourbon Wall clamped down.  Clamped down hard.  Here's a few saves, including one from the opposing netminder, Warren Peas (!):


In the waning seconds of the first period, Hlin scored off a feed from Thunder Road.  Then the Lightning tied it up in the opening moments of the second.  Here's Thunder Road unassisted:



Later, Hlin scored the go ahead, and then Gloster* (nee Deren, nee Mama Jet) gave them a 2-goal lead, taking a backhand feed from Coach Road and scoring on her signature one-timer from the slot, five-holing poor Warren Peas.  Just like she does in practice.




All smiles for the team photo afterwards:

lying down: A1; kneeling: Amanita, Gloster, The Bearcat, Nicole's Friend
standing: Bourbon Wall, Snutch, Vapo Rub, MJ, Coach Thunder Road, Vito, Hlin, Purify, Warren Peas
missing: Black Locust, Timbers

Notes:  The game marked the first win in the young coaching career of Thunder Road's little sister, Hungry Heart.  The Green Bay Packers also won.  The game puck goes to Thunder Road who had 2 assists, 1 goal, a few sparks.  And all hats go off to Purify, who had her contract bought out by the Belfast Hockey Maidens in the N. Ireland league.  She'll be bringing some of that Madison Lightning spirit to the Irish Sea. 

Purify's last shift

* Gloster neatly combines experimental (the word behind Deren (see Maya Deren)) and jet. 

Updated odds on Meteorites v. Lightning

Vegas has changed the odds on this Sunday's matchup between the Meteorites and the Lightning, the what WCHL-fans are calling The Battle For the Skies.  Much like the Battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe, I think the winning team actually gets to take home the sky. 

Anyway, the odds:

Madison Meteorites +2 -140
Madison Lightning -2 +150

I suspect it's not because Vito just got her skates sharpened at Hartmeyer tonight.

Game 8. Brew City Blades (A) (L)

[Due to the Scrabble-laden post of Game 7's review, this post has no Scrabble content.]

Game 8. Brew City Blades Blue

The Pettit Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Ah, the Petit Center, site of my home/away games when I was the net minder for The St. Pats.  I checked how the old boys were doing this season and was not too surprised that they were pretty much how I had left them, just under .500.  "Leave the campsite as you left it."  I try to follow that motto at all times.

The Pettit was abuzz with activity: kids from 1 to 92 speed skating, folks in shorts jogging on the outer ring (having paid $7 for the privilege), kids selling Krispy Kreme donuts and hot chocolate to raise money for their speed skating team, a guy shooting off the starter's gun (and clearly getting off on it) to, well, start races.  General mayhem. 

I bought a donut and went to watch the Lightning play the Brew City Blades Blue, ready to sit back and enjoy the carnage.  The Lightning had shutout the Blades 8-0 a month ago.

But I did not witness hockey carnage.  I did not witness a much-hoped for Amanita Ovechtrick (definition: 9 consecutive scores in an athletic competition).  I witnessed the unwitness-able: The Lightning were held scoreless in the first period!  Sure the team was missing Snutch, MJ, The Bearcat, and Deren, but to not score in the first period?  Unheard of!

Props should be given to the oft-beleaguered Brew City Blades goaltender, who was making some Original Six style saves. 

But the wall came crumbling down in the 2nd period.  The line of Nicole's Friend and Vito, centered by Amanita came through with two quick goals.  The first scored by the opportunistic Vito, who top-shelved a rebound from a hard shot by Nicole's Friend.  This was rise-out-of-your-seat stuff!  It was then that I decided to put down that donut and take out my video camera to hopefully get some action.   This is what I got:



Afterwards, Vito, Timbers, The Scoot, and I went to Corazon Cafe to get some Mexican grub in Riverwest, my old stomping grounds.  During the car ride over, I told Vito that she was going to get the game puck.  She protested, saying that it belonged to Nicole's Friend, who also had two goals and assisted for at least one of the other goals.  But her protests fell on ears deafened by love and desperation.  "Take the game puck, Vito!  It isn't often you get a 2-goal game." 

Puck taken.

Notes: Next Sunday, the 8-0 Lightning face the Madison Meteorites of the Red Division.  That's the top division in the WCHL.  It'll be the Lightning's first major test of the season.  Vegas currently has the puck line at a remarkable Madison Meteorites -1.5 +120 / Madison Lightning +1.5 / -130, and that's on the rumor that The Bourbon Wall is going to be in net for the Lightning.  The over/under, by the way, is 5.5.  Call your bookies!  This is going to be a hot one.

Game 7. Green Bay Dragons (H) (L)

Game 7. 

Blooming Grove Town Hall, Town of Blooming Grove, Wisconsin

There's not many things in life that would make The View From the Clouds miss attending a Madison Lightning hockey game, but a chance to spend $25 to hang out with these folk is one of them:

One of these Scrabble Sharks actually played the word YAKITORI on me

Yes, these are the people that made up the top division of the Madison "Winter" Scrabble Tournament, from Verona's Dastard Deltiologist to Chicago's B#*ch B#*ch Bingo.  Foremost among them is Magellan, the number one seed in a field populated by proven experts and past National Champions.  Hell, The One Circa 1981 represented the United States in Poland in last year's World's.

I was the 6th seed and, over a span of 8 games, I was expected to win "3.4" games.  Unfortunately, I won less.  I mean, it is a bit intimidating playing on a board like this:

In Scrabble's hey-day, the tourney directors gave the champions of each division a personalized board

But the day was not a total loss: The Lightning dispatched the Green Bay Dragons 8-0.  I learned this while talking to Vito over the phone after the game.  A bunch of the players were at the watering hole tossing back a few cold ones.  The phone call went something like this:

A View From the Clouds: Hi. 

Vito: A-yo!  How'dju do? 

AVFtC: Ah, not so well.  I went 2 and 6.  The Dastard just destroyed me by, like, 200 points.  He pulled the bag, though.  Guy plays "towering" with two blanks.

Vito: Yo!  F*ck that guy, he can't hold your jock, man.  You use them golden racks? 

[Vito was referring to my special gold racks.]

AVFtC: Yes, I did use the gold racks.  I let Zig use one of them.

Vito: WHAT?!?  Man, don't evah let that douche use yer gold racks.  He has enough mojo as it is.  Did he beat you?

AVFtC: Yes, he beat me.  He played "hieratic" during the end game. 

Vito: See?  So I guess we ain't going to Sizzler.

AVFtC: No, we're not going to Sizzler.  Um, how'd you guys do?

Vito: Us?  8-0 win, dog!  We were the Dragons' second opponent today, so … yeah, no sweat.  Game puck goes to Purify, she had a couple of goals.  She was feelin' it. 

AVFtC: Purify.  Check.  Good for her.

Vito: And don't worry about Sizzler.  Apparently, it's going down at Timbers' tonight.

[click]

Notes: I went 2-6 with 14 bingos - including BIOPICS, EPISCIA, and STIRRUPS - and my rating went down from 1542 to 1514.  Also, Guluth is a tropical location.

The action at Timbers'

Game 6. Janesville Jets (H) (L)

The Shell, Madison, Wisconsin
mood: rushed

The day marked the introduction of Warren Peas, the Lightning's other goaltender.  Followers of the team will already know that a few teammates moonlight for other hockey clubs.  Such is the climate in hockey-crazed Wisconsin.  One of these players is our own Bourbon Wall, the goaltender who back-stopped the Lightning to a WCHL championship two years ago.  This season, she's also in net for the Baraboo Bugaboos.  (And frankly, I would play for the Bugaboos if only to get a sweater.)

So, with nobody too worried about the opposition (the understaffed Janesville Jets who had managed only 6 shots against the Lightning in their previous game), all eyes were on Warren Peas.  And not only because she was making her Lightning debut, but also because she was coming back from a concussion sustained in the team's 3rd practice session back in October.  AND apparently, she was coming back with a marked lack of depth perception, a skill sort of handy when your job is to keep track of vulcanized rubber coming at your from all angles.  Some team officials think that Warren Peas had always lacked the ability to perceive depth and satire, speculating that this malady is not related to her recent concussion.  To this I say "Bosh!  Goalies march to a different drum!  They are cut from the tie-dyed wool!  They make their own kool-aid!  If a goalie can rely on the sounds and smells of the game - as I believe Warren Peas does - then so be it."

And except for a first-period goal that surprised her, she looked good in goal:



Hlin again opened up the scoring.  This time with a sweet wrap-around.  As a goalie, I hated giving up these goals because it's basically a matter of speed.  Can I move from one post to the other, a mere 6 feet, faster than it takes for the skater to circle behind the net and extend her stick just beyond the post to stuff the cradled puck into the net?  For those in the Union, these are the goals you hate to give up. 



The Bearcat scored a beautiful goal later in the first.  Sprung by a pass by Amanita, The Bearcat raced in behind the defense, deked, and then went to the back claw and snuck it beneath the goalie's flailing glove hand.



In the third period, the team rallied to fulfill Amanita's goals-per-game clause in her contract, but she was stoned at least twice by the now-stinkin'-mad Janesville Jet goalkeeper.   



But eventually, Amanita and Nicole's Friend performed a near-perfect "give and go."



The 7-1 victory seemed like mere formality, and it was very difficult to decide who deserved the game puck.  But then Amanita produced this at lunch:



Then it was like: no doubt.

//

Buoyed by the success of the still undefeated Lightning, in the afternoon, The View From the Clouds romped at Scrabble Club at the Eastside HyVee, going 4-1 with 13 bingos.  In my first game, I played HIDALGO, TIRRIVEE and DASTARD. A tirrivee is a "tantrum."  For example: "As part of her tirrivee, Janesville player #6 throws a body check, putting her team at the disadvantage."



And when I got back to the homestead, I found that Vito had made a yummy squash galette and my favorite Brussels sprouts dish.



Then we watched the Big 10 Football Championship and It's a Wonderful Life on TV.  We're all winners!

Game 5. Freeze Blue (A) (E)

Game 5.

Stoughton, Wisconsin. 

Oh, how I wished I could have attended this game.  The drive to Stoughton from Madison over that dark, two-lane blacktop, is a bit harrowing.

Yes, I missed my second Lightning game this season, having been dispatched earlier in the day via Badger Bus to Milwaukee to earn my keep, and then eat Turkish meatballs and discuss the pros and cons of dyeing hair. 

But a cloud rarely lofts alone, and while I was weighted down by reports of both the KSU Wildcats and the UO Ducks losing, I was buoyed by a text that the M Lightning had won, and had won against the formidable Berlie, the very same netminder that filled in last week's match at Janesville. 

Berlie would not be spared.  Reports came in that the goaltender was actually chased.  Chased!!!  In an exhibition game in the WCHL. 

Additional reports came in with Amanita's natural hat-trick, Hlin's outburst in the locker room ("Me bored!"), the Lucas Cates Band at the Main Street Pour House, and the controversial mac-n-cheese, decried by the Bourbon Wall in a diatribe that lasted well over 45 minutes. 

Game puck 5 games to Amanita.  Maya Deren rounded out the scoring.  See you in a couple of weeks.

Notes: I suffered my worst night at Scrabble Club earlier this week, going 0-5 with only 3 pedestrian bingos.  During that run of bad play, I threw a fit, as much as a fit as decorum allows in Scrabble club: my opponents plays the nice FLENSER, and then actually invited me to challenge that word!  I  hissed, "FRESNEL scores more."  In actuality, it didn't, but that wee outburst did give my opponent pause.

Knows FLENSER but not FRESNEL.

Game 4. Janesville Jets (A) (L)

As Goes Janesville

It had rained all the way down to Janesville where the Lightning met fellow grey-division hockey team the Janesville Jets.  To celebrate the occasion, I wore my gaudy green New York Jets sweater. 

Both Jets would lose tonight, leaving me with simple yet mixed feelings:

Have the Lightning been too dominant?  Shots on goal tonight favored them 6 to 27.

Is Mark Sanchez really that bad?  The offense hasn't scored in a touchdown in years.

Should Vito and I go over to the Stone Barn afterwards?  Vito's still feeling under the weather and we haven't watched our requisite 10 hours of Friday Night Lights this weekend.

Should I expound on that one bit in my last post about "this nation's flawed two-party system"? 

Yup, but remember last year when we only managed six shots a game?
I guess, but it's all a part of god's (via Tebow's) plan for Jets dominance.
Will there be burgers?
And a resounding NOOOO!!  But wouldn't the Republican Party be so much better if the Tea Party actually became their own party? 

The Lightning won.  They scored six goals to the Jets' one to start the season 4-0. 

They once again put on the clamps and played suffocating hockey.  They played Original Six hockey!  (I don't know what that means but in all my years of listening to hockey on the radio, I've not heard that been used.)

I hadn't seen a defensive performance like this since, well, yesterday.  But no, really, I hadn't seen a game like this since that time in Ashwaubenon when The Bourbon Wall had to serve a suspension in the middle of a weekender against the Green Bay Goon Squad.  Timbers, our stalwart center, had to renew her Union card and do the Hungry Hippo in net.  Back then the Lightning also turned up the screws to achieve victory.  Tonight, with The Bourbon Wall moonlighting up in Fond du Lac - great Supper Clubs in those parts, I hear - the Lightning recruited the diminutive in stature, not of heart or stock, one-named goalie: Berlie.  An unknown quantity, the Lightning would take no chances.  But Berlie proved up to the task.  That one goal she let in was a two-post ringer.  Left post, right post and out, only to be stuffed back in by a swarming Janesville Jet.  Darren Pang, eat yer heart out!

Berlie

No Worries, the Slot's Covered

So I'm really enjoying the defensive play.  Tonight, without A1 or Snutch, I got to see plenty of Hlin, Michael Jordan, Bearcat, and Vapo Rub.  Great passing, great control during the power plays.  Me and the crew marveled at Vapo Rub's thieving abilities.  Was that her blowing up what last year would've been a two-on-none?  Was that her scoring a goal in a solo effort in yesterday's game?  I cannot WAIT to see her go up against her mom in a future contest.

The first period was great.  I did not know what to expect from Janesville.  Certainly they were going to be a bigger challenge than the Brew City Blades Blue.  So it was with relief that I witnessed Deren (nee Mama Jet) score the first goal of the game from the slot: a sweet one-timer that even put her to her knees.  Classic.

Deren's on the right.  The puck is still in the air, in the net.

In the second period, Vito netted her first goal of the season.  She lofted the puck chest-high towards the net and an opponent's stick tipped it over the goalie.  That's exactly how it's written it up in all the play books.  Way to go, Vito!  Who loves ya, baby?!

Amanita, after dishing out three assists in the Saturday game - on her birthday no less - put in two top-shelf-ers of her own tonight.  But she would pay the price: she was witnessed limping' n' grimacing' after the game.  Clearly the Lightning's best offensive player and mycologist, an injury to Amanita is an injury to all.  But wouldn't it be just the thing to rally around?!?

Timbers Enjoying the Moment

Notes:
Richard the Dastard Deltiologist, repping Madison in the Twin Cities in this weekend's Scrabble tourney, having led most of the way, lost in his last game to fall to third place.  Can't wait to see the bingo report, though!
Six fans, including the View From the Clouds, made the trip down to Janesville to support their Lightning.  The posse's only going to get bigger, folks.
Game puck #4 goes to Amanita, who came away with 3 points tonight, making 6 for the weekend.

Blowout

Blowout

Obligatory Scrabble post: the word "kidvids" is indeed playable in Scrabble.

 
Yes, your spell check is going to try to change that word to "kiddies", but don't make that blank an "e", make it a "v" so that your opponent (and you) can laugh at the word while challenging it.  When the challenge comes back in your favor, you take the last tile out of the bag and empty your rack, ending the game.  When you collect the points off your opponent's rack, you have enough points to win.

Not that the Lightning needed an late-game heroics to win their game today.

I was wrong to say in my inaugural post that the Brew City Blue was "despised."  The Brew City team that the Lightning despise is some other color.  Not blue.  "Blue" references not the color of one of the two political parties in this nation's flawed two-party system.  No, "blue" refers to the level of ability. 

In the Women's Central Hockey League, teams are placed in five sub-leagues, based on that team's level of ability.  There's the "green" league for beginners.  For the best players, there's the "red" league.  Green, blue, grey, white, and red.  Our Lightning belong in the grey league.  Last year, they played in the white league and won one league game, maybe. 

And so the Brew City Blades Blue team the Lightning faced today was actually playing a division up.

That's how it goes in the league.  Eventually, the Lightning will play the teams in the "white" division: U Wisconsin B, Fond du Lac Lightning Bolts, Madison Freeze White, and the despised Brew City Blades White.  Supposedly there they'll find a more evenly-matched game.  The Lightning will also play up to the white division.

Today, the Ligthning were expected to win and win they did.

The first two stoppages of play in the first period were due to goals scored by the Lightning.  MJ opened the scoring with a chest-high floater from near the blue line.  I like these kinds of shots: pucks wristed off the surface, through some traffic, somewhat surprising the goaltender, and finding a way into the net.  Snutch would score another one of these in the third period. 

The second goal of the game was scored by the incomparable Hlin, who doggedly stick-handled from the left circle to the top of the slot and shot. 

Then, on and on from there.  There were some chippiness (defined: hockey play) that was taken in various ways that ultimately led to Timbers being the beneficiary of some stellar passing.  Timbers positioned herself in front of the net numerous times, and stuffed sure passes into the net three straight times for a natural hat-trick to close out the blowout, 8-0. 

Throughout, the Bourbon Wall (nee Murmuring Wall) faced a sad total of six shots, one in the first, and five in the second, and none in the third.  None in the third.  I thought back to my goal-tending days and how I disliked, somewhat, the lack of shots against me.  It's true, having the puck on the other side of the ice kind of takes you out of the game, such that when you finally face some shots, you are not at your mental peak.  But the Bourbon Wall did make all her saves, and a few of them were good shots.

Despite that, I have to award the game puck to Timbers, who survived being tripped by the ghost of the Shell, to score that natural hat trick in less than 4 minutes.

Timbers

Notes: Vito left the game soon after the beginning of the second period, citing sickness, and smartness: better to conserve energy for tomorrow's game against Janesille Jaguars.  All but Mama Jet found herself on the score sheet.  But only Mama Jet had a film in the 2012 Milwaukee Short Film Festival.  The View From the Clouds had a film in the 2012 Milwaukee Short Film Festival, too, sort of.  The View from the Clouds had composed music to the film Missed Connections, directed by Susan Kerns and Kara Mulrooney.  That film, like the Lightning, won as well.

Season-Opening Double-Header

November 3, 2012. The Shell.

Muchly anticipated this side of Manna Bakery and Cafe, the Madison Lightning's season began today with a home and away doubleheader against the Madison Thunder.  Both games were played at The Shell.

Hlin, who had eschewed all semblance of a pre-season ala Lawrence Taylor, scored in her first or second shift in the first period to lead the Lightning to their first league win. That win either ties or eclipses the number of wins they had in their god-awful previous season. The Bearcat and Amanita rounded out the scoring, with Amanita finding the back of the net once, and some crossbar another time.

I wish I could detail some of these goals because at least one of these could have been classified as "beautiful", complete with nice passes, with being patient with the puke, a frozen goaltender. There even might have been a backhand shot there. But the View From the Clouds was sitting at the far end bleachers. The only goal I really got a good look at was the sole strike against the Lightning in the 3rd period.  The Murmuring Wall lost her shutout on an excellent backdoor goal by Rudolf.  I can't specify the time because the score board wasn't in operation.  The one and only key that unlocks the scoreboard control board had been misplaced! So ... no horn to mark the end of the period.  Instead the refs just blew on their whistles long and hard.

After the game, I caught a glimpse of the new coach walking out of the locker. She was sporting a NY Giants winter hat. I was wearing a Green Bay Packers winter hat. We did not acknowledge each other, despite me having attended her practices dressed in a Hartford Whaler away jersey.  Should I have said: "Good game, coach!"? Having actually never had a coach aside from my high school public speaking coach (and I just called him Mr. Donahue), I still think it's a pretty big deal to call somebody "coach." I used to get a big kick calling the legendary one-eyed coach for the Lake Forest College Foresters men's hockey team "coach." In the 90's, I did a bunch of skating at Lake Forest College during open skate and I'd see him every now and then kicking the bleachers or looking for lost puck.  "S'up, coach!" I'd say even though he did not know me from Sam.  

As part of my duty, I accompanied most of the team to Jordan's Big 10 Pub for lunch.  I ate a veggie burger slathered with mayo, ketchup, and mustard.  It was much better than the veggie burger I had last night at Ale Asylum.  But it still only rated a 52 out of 100.  At the pub, Young Jet drew up this play:

It's called "TWO-TWO-NO-EAT-CHICKEN-STRIPS."  It describes a gleeful yet suffocating penalty kill (with the goalie pulled).  The Bearcat clandestinely wolfed down the chicken strips.

I forwent the afternoon game.  Instead, I attended the Madison Scrabble Club at the Eastside HyVee, where I went 2 for 4.  During my last game, I played the improbable word KURTOSIS.  Perhaps even more improbably, my opponent knew what KURTOSIS meant.

 
While I was playing Scrabble and eating cake, the Lightning went on to shutout the Thunder to start the season 2-0.

Judging from what I observed in the first game, I'd say the Lightning seemed cohesive and the defense looked sound.  Credit the latter to the return of Super Snutch and the team's new addition, Michael Jordan.  Or give credit to the new coach?  Or to the fact that the Lightning are now playing in an "easier" league.

Game Puck #1 goes to Hlin.  Game Puck #2 goes to The Murmuring Wall. Next game is 11/10, also at the Shell versus the despised Brew City Blue.