Sunday 02/06/11

We’re coming off a busy weekend. We were in Rio Grande Valley for two games and then back home for Sunday. We didn’t play too well on Friday night and ended up losing and then Saturday we came back and had a really good game and ended up winning.

We were on the bus for an eight or nine hour ride back home and then had to get ready to play Fort Wayne at 4:00pm at home on Sunday. I don’t think we played very well. We were tired, I think, and didn’t play the way we needed to but we ended up getting a point out of the game, which was big for us. It was one of those games where they played way better and they deserved to win. For us to get a point finished the weekend off well.

We didn’t have much time to rest. We got right back on the bus at 1:00pm on Monday to Odessa, which was our normal travel schedule (the day before the game). We had actually heard about the weather coming in and we heard that Odessa was having some ice problems, so there was talk of maybe canceling the game but we decided we could get there and that it would be better if we just played the game.

The condition of the ice really wasn’t bad. I guess a pipe had busted under the rink at the one end. When we got there on Monday, we could see them working on it; they dug through the ice and into the cement to get to the pipes and try and fix it. I was surprised - it actually turned out alright for the next night. They didn’t have it ready for a morning skate so we didn’t skate in the morning, which was OK but by game time it was in pretty good shape. We had a really good game there and won it 4-1.

We spent the night in Odessa after the game because of the big storm that came in and then we ended up getting stuck on the bus for a day and a half, trying to make it home. The ride was alright…It was definitely taking a long time and you’re on a bus and it’s so small and you can’t move anywhere. I think everybody dealt with it fine. It’s one of those things that nobody had any control over. We got on the bus at eight in the morning on Wednesday and we knew it would be a long trip but we expected to be back that night at some point. I think we drove until about six at night and the roads just weren’t getting any better. It was getting dark, so it wasn’t getting any safer and we made the decision to stop. They made some calls and there were no hotels within 20 miles of where we were that had enough room for everybody. We sleep on the bus when we’re driving anyway, so we just slept on the bus for that night.

So that was a rough trip back but we made it back. We went to practice on Friday morning to get ready for the game on Friday night which was, after we left practice, we found out the game was canceled because of more bad weather that came in.

We came back on Saturday night and I thought we had a really good game. We’ve struggled against Allen this year. I really thought we deserved to win that game. We had a lot of scoring chances. Their goalie played really well and kept them in the game and gave them a chance to win and they won a tight game 2-1.