Coupe de France Game #1

Still wearing #14 until my new jersey arrives!

This past weekend marked the beginning of the Coupe de France or French Cup, which kind of acts like a national tournament where games are played throughout the season to determine the French Cup Champion. We drew a team from the D1 league (Reims) but had the advantage of playing at home. We have been progressing as a team and had alot of confidence that we could be successful in the match.

We started out the first and immediatly got into penalty trouble as Reims was a very quick team and we got caught a few times standing still. Needless to say, they eventually scored on the power-play. That seemed to wake us up a bit and we took advantage of a power-play of our own to even the score. Olivier Ducam, my defence partner, wired it top shelf. Reims however were not done for the period and after a back and forth ten minutes, they netted their second at the 15:33 mark. End of the first and we were down by one.

In the second, we came out skating and it was Reims turn to be caught standing still and taking penalties. And we made them pay on a 5-on-3 power-play where Andronik won a faceoff back to me at the point, I slid the puck over to Olivier, who then one-timed it past their goalie. We didn't stop there however as we continued to press the advantage and were rewarded 10 seconds later with another goalie from the stick of Olivier who thought he had turned into Sheldon Souray for the night with the natural hat trick. Reims immediatly took a time out to settle down and it seemed to work wonders for them and proved disatrous for us as we started taking penalties once again. They took advantage and scored again on the power-play before adding another to finish out the period leadin us 4-3.

In the third, we simply didn't do enough to win. Reims took penalties, but we couldn't get the puck to the net. They added two more to seal the victory but we just never got it going after the timeout in the second.

I should note that Olivier Ducam, with the natural hat trick, also had a stellar defensive game. I am really enjoying playing with him as we communicate well and are both capable of handling the puck. Penalities and a lack of offence continue to be aspects that we struggle with, but the team is improving and I have no doubt that we are very close to turning the corner and having some success.