Semifinals Result

I'm pretty sure 99% of the people who read this blog have already heard the results of this morning's semifinals game via Facebook, text, or phone, but for anyone who hasn't...

THEY WON!

In a surreal repeat of last year's semifinal (see here to jog your memory), the game ended in a 0-0 tie. As a result, they had a 3 minute 4-on-4 overtime. No one scored. So then they had a 3 minute 3-on-3 overtime. Once again, no one scored. So just like last year, it went to a shootout. Luckily, this year it didn't go through the entire roster once and then into a second round of shootout. This time, one of our best scorers, Cole, scored on the first shot, and then none of the other players scored so we finished with a 1-0 OT victory. It wasn't quite as heart-pounding as last year--since we'd already been through it once, plus Cole's initial goal took some pressure off--but it was still wild.

It didn't hurt that our goalie Shaan had one of his best games of the year--if not THE best--since our team didn't play quite as well as they did in the round robin games. Whatever the case, they won so it's on to the finals, which will be played at noon tomorrow. Their opponent will be the team that beat them 2-0 in the round robin so it'll be a chance for revenge.

I didn't bring the Nikon since I wanted to concentrate on the game, but I did get a couple of before and after pictures with my cell phone. First, here's the Emojis as they are about to get on the ice. I'm not sure what Lucas (#9) was doing on the left side there. I know one of his friends came to watch so maybe he was saying something to him.

And here's immediately after Shaan stopped the last shootout goal and the kids came out to celebrate. I apologize for the crappy image, but like I said earlier, I didn't want to have to worry about photos so I left the good camera at home. If you look closely, you might be able to make out a couple of kids not in uniform in the celebration. They're also seen sitting on the left side in the previous photo. They are out-of-action Emojis that came out to support the team and stood on the bench with the coaches during the game. What a great group of kids.

Keep your fingers crossed for them tomorrow and check in since I should be posting an update during the early afternoon.