Returning the Favor

Good Evening, or in Norsk, God Kveld, We have now completed our pre-holiday schedule. We have played 27 games and find ourselves in 2nd place with 18 games left. The UK league holds a similar schedule around the holidays as North American Pro Leagues, so this is my first experience of the true European Christmas break. We have 17 days until our next game. I can used to this I think.

On Saturday, we hosted a good Frisk-Asker team. We played a strong first period but couldn't find a way to score and the period ended 0-0. In the second we were able to score a couple and we were in complete control. The last time we played Frisk, we held a 2 goal league in the 3rd and ended up losing in O.T. If I was fluent in Swedish, I would guess that is what the coach reminded us of between periods. However, they came out and scored a goal early and thoughts of the last time we played them crept in our minds. They pressed a bit, and we were able to hold them off long enough to score a couple power play goals late and walk out with a 4-1 win!

That was good but Thursday it was a rivalary game. Sterjne, the team from 15 minutes away and beat us 6-2 last time. To add to that, they were coming off a win against first place Valerenga on Tuesday.

The rink was packed, and on TV.... which has been bad luck for us so far this year. The first period went just as they had hoped, they scored on a turn over and had a 1-0 lead. We were focused and intense between periods but it didn't matter, they came out on top of us. They had some good chances and didn't really let us out of our zone. After 5-7 minutes of that, they scored (on a high stick) but whatever it counted and we were down 2-0 in their rink.

Then....The gates opened, we scored 5 goals on the next 6 shots and the game was over. Their goalie, Pal Grotnes, Norway's national team goalie, pulled himself and their back-up played the rest of the game. We played well in the third holding the lead and the game ended 5-2. We out shot them 36-28. Our fans, who braved the snow for 18 kilometers to see the game, went home happy.

Now we practice for the next week and then have some days off....

I hope everyone has a very happy and healthy Holiday season. For those of you that are following from home, I will see you on the 19th at 1:00pm and I truly can't wait.

Please include my Grandma in your prayers this Christmas, she is starting a battle with cancer..We all love her very much and need her for many more Holidays.