Don't Let The Score Fool You, It Was A Close One

Istanbul, Turkey - My undefeated steak continued with a 8-5 win against our future first round playoff opponent, Kocaeli BB. It was a very dirty, highly penalized game that included two match penalties happening in the first 5 minutes of the game. Our newest addition to our team, the Lativian, came under an all out attack after scoring the games opening goal. Being outnumbered 2 to 1, our import defensemen Andrii jumped in only to be quickly jumped and thrown to the ice. While trying to get up, the Kocaeli goalie skated out of his net and kicked, YES, kicked Andrii in the back. This triggered my natural Canadian hockey instict to defend my team mate so I began a mad sprint to the other end only to be knocked out of my trance by the threaten screams from my coach. The memory crept back into my head that I am an import player and entering into a fight with an opponent would just give the Federation the option of throwing me out for the rest of the year and the next one. Also, if I get suspended, I don't get paid.

Andrii gets ejected and Kocaeli's goalie gets ejected. This wouldn't pose such problem for us if it wasn't for the fact that we only had 3 dmen for the game. Turns out, the Federation decided that our other import defensemen, Michal from Slovakia, wasn't allowed to play because 'his player card wasn't finished in time'. So with 2 dmen left, we found ourselves down 2-1 after the first period.

The second period was close one but saw us come out ahead 4-3 (many thanks to our coach tearing a strip off us during the intermission). After a penalty riddled third for Kocaeli we managed to come out ahead and win the game.

After the game we said goodbye to Michal as he departed back to Slovakia. The club decided there was no point in him staying in Turkey since he cannot participate in the playoffs because he didn't meet the 5 game minimum needed for import players to participate in the post-season.

My next game is tomorrow (Saturday Feb.13) in Istanbul against 2nd last place Ankara BB. Oh and to get there my club is sharing a bus with the Polis club since they play after us against Ankara Univeristy. Should be an interesting trip.

Brittany's next game is on Sunday Feb.14 against Ankara University.