We (the Saint Catherine’s Saints) are here in Kahnawake for the 2013 Presidents Cup, which runs from August 26- Sept 1st.
Our first game — the first of the whole tournament, was Monday morning at the inexcusable hour of 9am. Have you ever taken shots off of your body at that hour? It’s nuts. Our opponent had it worse, as they were from Calgary. So 9am here is some ridiculous hour in Mountain Time, which probably doesn’t even have a name, because its too early, and even farmers and vampires are still asleep.
The Calgary Mountaineers weren’t, however, sleeping vampire farmers and gave us quite a run for our money for the first two periods. We were pretty rusty, and also sinned quite a bit, as evidenced by our 6 first period penalties, but ended up out-scoring them 7-0 in the third period for a 15-6 win. I think Shawn Wilkins buried all 15 for us and even a couple for Calgary. He’s that good. I stopped 147 shots for the win, and got like 6 chicks pregnant.
The old barn on the reserve gets HOT. The turf is well-laid and I recognize it as the old Vancouver Ravens carpet that was passed around from CLax arena to CLax arena, like a bag of Doritos. Hello, old friend, I’ve allowed a number of goals, in the past, while standing in your green creases.
We stuck around for the game after ours, which was Ottawa vs. Onondaga. Since we were to play Onondaga on tuesday, it seemed like the proper thing to do. Speaking of CLax, this game was a total track meet, that seemed like a passing game between the goalies. Brett Parras, the goalie for Ottawa throws the ball so well and effortlessly that I’m pretty sure he’s just doing it with his mind. Like a Jedi. We hoped that Ottawa’s eventual win tired-out Onondaga enough for us to get a leg-up on them on Tuesday.
2pm on Tuesday arrived, I got the nod to work the D-door on the bench, giving Jake Henhawk the day off from it. On the bench, the backup goalie has to wear a helmet. Since I had my uppers off I probably looked like a sweaty Q-Tip with a sick paint job on the cottonball end. It was nice to not have to worry about my hair though. The heat would’ve frizzed it right out.
After being down for a bit, we eventually came back and pulled-off a 12-5 victory. IT WAS HOT. So hot that the turf itself apparently starting sweating and soiling itself. It was soaked. We were soaked. Both teams were bagged. There was puke. People’s sweat was squirting up out of the little perforations in the toes of their shoes– which is actually pretty cool to see. It’s like when you see a minor game and a bunch of the kids are wearing those shoes that light up with each step. Only with us it wasn’t LEDs, but man-foot sweat shooting off everywhere.
Wilkins got all 17 goals in that game and even reffed a period.
It’s going to be a sweaty, stinky week, bro.
