The long expensive season...

When does it ever end? Yes I'm talking hockey hockey. The kids seasons officially ended with games in March and while part of me was sad to see the end I am pretty darn tired from all the travel. 2 kids playing travel hockey gets tiring pretty quickly. Yet I know I'll look back on this year and love every minute. Between the 2 kids we had more than 100 games and more than 180 practices. The kids played in 26 different ice rinks in 2 states and it would have been 3 states except Frudoch missed a tournament in Pennsylvania and Poppy's team missed one there as well due to a screw up by the team manager. I don't even want to think of how much fuel we went thru for my car and truck. This winter we had our Subaru blow a turbo on the way to an early hockey game in Cleveland which added another $3k to the expenses and then had to sell said car as there was so much metal sucked thru the engine that it would fail. If I had to guess... we spent more than $8k on hotels, food, gas, supplies, doctors appointments, hockey equipment and car repairs. Never mind the time which has even more value. Why do we do it? Hockey is a great sport. Perhaps the greatest. Our vacation this year was staying home and resting after a long season. The best part..... Development camp started last week for both kids. Frudoch as an instructor and Poppy as a student.

Of course the next step is Mid Am development camp tryouts for elite players and for the first time Frudoch is invited. Should be a great measuring stick for him before tryouts for the 2011/12 season which are less than a month away. Poppy will skip girls Mid Am camp and will be looking to play all girls travel next year as no matter what anybody says a girl doesn't get a fair shake on a boys team. Even when she is better than the boys. Oh well it was tons-o-fun and its already going again so I need some sleep.

We Had a GREAT Weekend!

Please see: http://www.lightthelamp.com
Quick update from my favorite CBJ blog. Of course I'll have much more to add about the weekend.

So as I said the update was quick. It also was pretty vague. I'll add a bit more here before blogging on. During the weekend of Hockey Day in America. The Columbus North Stars headed up to Detroit for another tournament in search of glory. As before they found it! Once again playing in the AA Squirt Travel division the North Stars (who are not a AA team and who are not a travel team) were able to beat all comers and win in AA. The team is exceptional for their unselfish play and teamwork. This group of Rec level players again stepped it up to take it to Travel teams from the CSHL and the Little Caesars league among others. They did encounter a first on the year though. In their 2nd game they never had the lead. They did come back late though an get a tie. Following the championship game they pushed their overall record to 14-0-2. We did lose a player for the rest of the season with a broken leg. He sucked it up and PLAYED in the championship game after taking a couple ibuprofen and one serious tape job. No kidding--he really broke his leg and we learned later it was a serious fracture to his tibia and a fracture in his ankle. Talk about tough! Here are a few shots of my favorite player--CHEETO!

Intensity

The hockey season is moving along with so many games and practices that sometimes I forget what day it is. Both kids are playing at higher levels than ever and are excelling. Frudoch is leading the Columbus Capitals in goals, shots, hits, scoring and assists despite playing less than half the minutes of the other forwards on the team. He was just switched from center to right wing so he is having to get used to having his back to the goal now and fighting off the defenseman. Just look at the intensity in this photo taken against Stongsville a couple weeks ago.


Poppy has been playing as a defenseman almost exclusively and her teams record stands at 6-1 which is great considering last year her team was 0-14-1 after the regular season. She also mad the Columbus North Stars select team and they have decided to play at the AA level in order to improve every player and really challenge the kids. Their travel schedule is really going to be hectic come January and February. They have played one game and steamrolled the opponents easily. These kids are going to be good.
As a parent I'm very proud of my kids although i'm getting worn out with hockey 6 days/nights a week from September to March.....

A Chance for the Championship

Last Friday Frudoch and I headed up to Cleveland for the Rock and Roll Tournament. Its an almost weekly series of tournaments in Cleveland and for us it was the last chance the North Stars had to win big. 3 games were guaranteed with a championship game for 1 vs. 2. Our first game was Friday night in Euclid vs. the Georgetown Raiders from Canada. This group was a well coached and very disciplined team. The Stars were missing a couple of players and unfortunately for Fru they were his linemates so he had to skate with new players. Lets just say the game was very competitive, but never in doubt as the Canadians won 3-0. It looked like the start of another not so successful tournament. Saturday morning we had an 8:00 game in Chagrin Falls against the Mentor Cardinals and the team played great. They passed the puck and worked hard. They came away with a 4-1 win and we had the whole day open with nothing until 7:50 am Sunday. Lots of ideas were tossed around, but a bunch of us went to Perani's Hockey World which is a big hockey store. It was a load of fun and then it was time for a nap and then Mass. Frudoch and I finally got our dinner at Outback Steakhouse that we had been trying to do for a few months. So early to bed it was for an early game in Strongsville against Rocky River was coming. It was a super game of back and forth with the North Stars pulling out a 4-3 win. Frudoch had a penalty for interference, but was otherwise held in check. We all went back to our hotel to check out as we were now going to the CHAMPIONSHIP GAME in Lakewood against.... the Georgetown Raiders again. WOOHOO..... redemption.

It was about this time I noticed the scores for the games that had been played and the team we were about to play had not been scored on yet in the 3 games. Uhh Oh. But thats why they play the game. In this game the ref's were the story. The whistles were a blowing. The raiders got a quick goal and we matched them. Or did we. The ref claimed he lost sight of the puck which was a really bad call.

Frudoch Working Hard
Since the puck was never frozen or near the goalie. They immediately came right back and scored to make it 2-0. We got a break and finally got one past the goalie to cut it to 2-1 and then they had a goal waved off for a crease violation that was not a very good call. At this point the floodgates opened for penalties on the North Stars and Fru got one for a trip. He also got hosed on a no call while he was on a breakaway.

Those kids were big!
At the end there were 7 penalties on the North Stars and 1 on the Raiders. Not exactly even. They even called a penalty with 4 seconds to go in the game. So an empty net goal and a cheap goal later it ended 4-1. The penalties really did the North Stars in as the Raiders collected a couple power play goals. I'm not one to complain about officials, but it was not an evenly called game. The kids deserved better. So second place it was.

Once again a prime spot---In the penalty box!


Second place and a medal!
Not the Stanley Cup, But Close Enough

Catching Up

Wow its been a couple weeks since my last blog update and so much has happened. Rather than write one huge post I'll break it down into several over the next couple days.

On my last post we were in snowy Detroit for a tournament with the North Stars. Well Frudoch did not have his best set of games. He ended the four game tournament with no goals one assist and 10 penalty minutes. For some reason the 2008 version returned and Fru got comfortable in the penalty box. 3 roughing and 2 boarding penalties in addition to having a go and exchanging a few punches AFTER a game had ended with probably 3 or 4 hits that could have been called. He was not alone in trying to knock everybody down as several of his teammates spent time in the box too. Overall they finished 1-3 with the win coming against Easton. The worst was yet to come.

A Familiar site: #10 in the box...

In one of his scrums Frudoch got into it with a kid and that kid found the ultimate way to get even. He put his skate blade across Frudoch's Easton Stealth S17 stick and broke it. Now this is not an ordinary stick. In fact it was a christmas present this year and a source of considerable pride. It also cost $200. Now I'm trying to figure out how to mark the occasion. I'll either mount the broken stick on the wall as-is or I'll take it to a trophy shop and have a piece of it mounted on a plaque. In any case here is the obligatory picture.

Who Knew There Was A Goal Scorer in the Family

We just returned from the first hockey tournament of the year. This one was in Indianapolis and Frudoch was there with the Columbus North Stars. This is Fru's first time making the North Stars and most of the other kids have played on the team for at least a couple years moving up thru the program as mites and now squirts. Needless to say they have an advantage as the familiarity with each other and the extra practices and games furthers their development. I was unable to make the first couple games as I had to stay back for a banquet so my wife took both kids and watched the first couple games while I came early Sunday morning and saw the last couple games. As I've noted before, Frudoch has improved his game quite a bit this year and now at the A level he is proving he belongs. In the 4 games he had 2 goals and 3 assists with 2 penalty minutes. He really has developed into a great forward and is willing to pay the price down low in front of the goal. What's maybe more impressive is his ability to setup his linemates with centering passes. In the Sunday game he was a monster crashing the net and scoring a goal on a rebound. His next shift out he was knocked down by an opposing player and he twisted his ankle and had to be carried off the ice and was unable to return. They held on to win the game, but the team lost a spark and his line allowed a couple of goals without him. His goal ended up being the game winner. His other goal was the first for the team in the tournament. I think he was having fun. His ankle felt a little better after keeping it iced and elevated and he played a limited role in Mondays semi final game. Unfortunately they ran into a team that was so disciplined and positionally strong and lost 3-2. It was a hard loss, but it will make them stronger. This story has not been finished.

In his most recent House game, Frudoch grabbed a couple early goals and tried so hard for the 3rd to get his first hat trick. He took 2 penalties in the 3rd trying to make something happen. The second penalty has a roughing for bumping this kid who just bounced about 5 feet off his shoulder. It was pretty impressive even though it was 2 kids running into each other and not a true penalty. This weekend brings 2 house games for both Frudoch and Poppy. Its gonna be another weekend of Hockey. Coming up soon we have Presidents Day weekend tournaments in Detroit for Fru and the North Stars and Poppy in Columbus for the Kings. See ya later.