Ice Force Season Comes To An End

Playoff hockey has a way of toying with your emotions.  The pregame anticipation gets you fired up.  The first big hit awakens you and gets you into the game.  The first goal can make your heart pound one way or another.  The surge of adrenaline and the myriad emotions you can go through can be both invigorating as well as heartbreaking.  Every rush up and down the ice can bring you to your feet or sink you to your knees.

The Greendale Ice Force opened up their playoff push with a game against the Waukesha Wings on Tuesday night, hoping their undermanned roster could somehow escape with a victory.  If they could advance, they would be bolstered by the return of three players on academic suspension.

The Ice Force succumbed to the Wings 6-3, ending their season.

“I guess only one team ends up a winner when the season ends, so it’s tough to go out early,” said Ice Force coach John Kennedy.  “I really thought that in my heart and in my mind we had one more game in us at minimum.  Then we would get a couple of our stronger bodies back, and then anything can happen in a playoff game, but it just wasn’t our night.”

Perhaps the fate of the Ice Force was sealed early in the opening period.  Back to back penalties on the Wings gave the Ice Force a two man advantage for 1:45.  Had they scored at least once on that powerplay they could have put things on cruise control.

“That powerplay could have given us the momentum,” said Kennedy.  “You can’t dwell on it once it’s over.  We sure could’ve used a goal there, but we didn’t even get any real good chances.  It’s disappointing since we worked on our powerplay in practice.”

Midway through the first period the Wings would dent the scoreboard first when Zed Dietrich found the back of the net off a 2 on 1 rush. Dietrich stole the puck in his own zone and began the rush up ice.  After faking a pass across the slot, Dietrich took the shot from the top of the right wing circle, which going through the legs of Ice Force goaltender Joe Koepp.

Kyle Hoffmann would get the Ice Force back to even on the powerplay, when he skated out of the left wing corner towards the slot and snuck the puck between the post and Wings net minder David Nelson.  Kahler Cox helped keep the play alive as he held the puck in the attack zone and found Hoffmann in the corner.

The powerplay can be both your ally and violent enemy.  Not scoring on the two man advantage.  Scoring on the powerplay to even the score.  Then giving up a short handed goal to fall behind again.

Opening the second period with another powerplay, the Ice Force looked to take the lead.  However, the Wings Tyler Kupsky had other ideas.

Kupsky blocked a shot from the left wing point and skated up ice shorthanded.  As he crossed the blueline, he used the Ice Force defenceman as a screen and shot the puck into the net giving the Wings a 2-1 lead.

Early in the third period, the Wings would extend their lead to 3-1 when Joey Horan found the back of the net off Koepp’s arm.  Horan’s shot appeared to be headed wide, but when Ice Force goaltender Joe Koepp tried to stick out his blocker pad to stop the puck, he inadvertently deflected the puck into his own net.

Kyle Hoffmann’s second goal of the night brought the Ice Force back to within a goal at 3-2.

Rostislav Zyarych took a shot from the point that found its way through traffic.  Wings goalie David Nelson made the initial save, but could not find the rebound.  As the puck lay in the crease, Hoffmann skated in to tap the puck into the net, giving the Ice Force hope of extending their season.

Despite having all the momentum in their favor, as well as a few opportunities to tie the game, the hockey gods decided to swing the momentum back over to the Wings.

A seemingly harmless dump-in turned into chaos behind the net and led to the goal giving the Wings a 4-2 lead.  As the puck was dumped deep in the Ice Force Zone, goaltender Koepp came out to play the puck.  However he was met by a forechecking Wings player who met him at the puck at the same time.  Making matters worse was a collision between Koepp and defenceman Kahler Cox allowing the puck to squirt out towards the front of the net where Jack Hoffman pounced on it and put it in the empty net.

Seconds later, what appeared to be a harmless clearing pass from the Wings own zone inexplicably found its way into the net to give the Wings a 5-2 lead.  Mac Wilkie was merely trying to clear the puck from his own zone and shot the puck from his own blueline towards the Ice Force net.  Koepp misplayed the puck and inadvertently defelcted the puck into the net.

Kahler Cox would singlehandedly try to get the Ice Force back into the game with a Bobby Orr type of length of the ice rush to make the score 5-3.  Cox picked up the puck behind his own net and began to skate up ice.  He deftly avoided contact and made his way into the Wings zone.  Once he got to the top of the slot, he fired a wrister that found the five hole and gave the Ice Force a glimmer of hope.

That glimmer quickly faded when Lane Geisness found the back of the net to make the final score 6-3.

“Everything was kind of going our way half way through the third period,” said Kennedy.  “We got a couple of bad breaks.  We win as a team and we lose as a team and I’m not going to point any fingers at anybody.  Everyone realizes we made mistakes and that’s what goals against are…mistakes.  Sometimes it’s more than one guy.  It’s a team sport and you have to roll with those punches.”

The Ice Force finished the year with a 4-16-1 record and a first round exit in the playoffs.  Despite the subpar record, this team overcame a lot of adversity and were in most of the games they played.  A break here or there, a fresher lineup, and any number of things and we could be talking about their next game in the tournament.

Instead we will have to wait for the start of the next season. Hopefully, the 2011-12 edition of the Ice Force will be able to make a stronger and longer run into the tournament.

There will be a season ending banquet. Thank you for following the Greendale Ice Force hockey program.