Home-Ice

The finals have come to Indy for the first time in several years. I'll be honest...I'm kind of burnt out on hockey by this time in the spring. It's been a long run, starting at the summer camp in June, then the team picnic in September, then kicking off the season in October.

By April I'm ready for a break.

But if I'm still standing in the box in May it's a whole different story. If I'm in the box in May it means we're playing for the Clark Cup. No, it's not Lord Stanley's Cup, and though the locker rooms are smaller, the equipment not as new, the will to win is still burning.

The Fargo Force was in town, and again if I'm being honest, I think we all took Game 1 for granted. I know I did. To use my exact words in describing it to my co-workers... "We'd beaten the snot out of Fargo three of four times we played them in the regular season." In my head, we were already lifting the Cup and starting the celebration.



And then the Fargo goaltender stood on his head and put on an absolute clinic in net. This was a Fargo team that was worlds away from the hapless expansion club we saw back in October. Not nearly the offensive weapons that we have, but the old sports cliche really is true-- 'Offense fills seats; defense wins championships.' Fargo shut the Ice down in front of their net, and crashed the hell out of our net. Eventually it paid off, and the Ice skated off 2-1 losers in the first game.


game two
The Ice came out determined to play their game instead of Fargo's in game two of the series. Home-ice-advantage nullified, this was going to be an out-and-out war.


Gone from the locker room was any kind of joking. No laughter. No pre-game giddiness. Just adrenaline, focus, and lots of taped-up playoff injuries.







Back after a night off was Sebastian Geoffrion, and he brought his normal style of game...




After two of the most brutal, hard-hitting periods of hockey I've seen in four years in the box, the Ice's offense finally started to fire on all cylinders, and we came out with a 5-2 win. Next up, games 3 and 4 in Fargo later this week, with a game 5 if necessary back in Indy on Sunday afternoon.

Time to Use the 'Force'

I think this photo pretty much sums it up, yeah?



Two powerplay goals against in the first period and this is how Phil Wilson, reporter for the Indianapolis Star, described the mood: "A humbling two-goal deficit after one period of hockey had the Indiana Ice locker room silent. Some players stared at the Pepsi Coliseum floor, others gawked at the ceiling. Doubt crept in, for a few moments." (LINK)

The second period brought out a different Indiana Ice team, though. Here are a couple shots of the period that turned the season...






And by far the coolest tradition in any sport. These guys spend the better part of a week trying to find new and exciting ways to kill each other on the ice, and at the end of all those hours of sweat and aggression, they line up and shake hands, from the players all the way through the ranks to the trainers. I absolutely love the handshake line. I wish I had been able to be there to shoot it, but this was Kelly's game from start to finish; I was at soccer and then home with the tot.



And finally for now, the post-game celebration in the locker room. I'm glad the guys had a moment to enjoy this accomplishment, but Mike Cichy pegged it... "It's still unfinished right now." We've got one more series to win. Look out Fargo, the Ice is coming...

Playoffs, baybeeee

Heard a good quote the other day that sums it up. I forget which coach it was, but after getting absolutely demolished in his first NHL playoffs game by a much lower-seeded team, the coach was asked about his team's preparedness. He said something like, I had no idea. I thought I'd been running them hard for the last three weeks and they were ready. They'd been playing at 100%. I had no idea that they'd need to step up the intensity _another_ 20% beyond that.


Yeah. That's playoff hockey. And it's come to Indy, not in the form of the NHL, but in our USHL Indiana Ice. Finishing the season 3 points out of the top spot in the league and better than any team in the other division, the Ice were ready to hit the ice and make a statement after an early playoff exit last season.

Still, that extra 20% is hard to come by when it's 70 degrees outside and the season started the _last_ time it was 70 degrees outside, with a full winter in between. The Ice's first round best-of-five playoff series against the Cedar Rapid RoughRiders went the full distance, finishing with a 7-6 shooting gallery in Cedar Rapids. The series winner was scored with 00:15 (that's fifteen seconds) left on the clock.

Here are just a couple of our favorite photos from the two games played in Indy in the first round series.