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.