HockeyFest London 2024 - Game 1

Here it is, the first game of HockeyFest 2024 in London, Ontario against the Retail Row Raiders.

Honestly, after HockeyFest last year we didn't really plan on going again until we got the email to register and decided to give it another shot. Unlike last year though, the team had to go through some changes, with the loss of Jason due to injury as well as others due to work. We did have some more time to prepare this year though, playing road hockey a little more consistently every week as well as practicing. However, we still weren't completely prepared as we didn't expect to be playing our first game of the tournament on Friday as we didn't have to last year and most of our team only planned on being there for the weekend. Most of us were still able to make it to the game in time, some coming straight from work, but 4 of our players were not able to make it.

While being down 4 players did already have us at a disadvantage, with the way the game went, it probably didn't have much impact on the outcome. After registering and starting our warmup, we noticed the other team running drills and practicing plays with more chemistry than we have probably had in our lives so we knew we were probably screwed. The game starts out fairly close for a while, however, after a few goals by the other team, the game eventually became a blowout, with Matthews (Connor) managing to respond for us, but us still officially being mercied with a score of 11-1. However, since both of our teams had went through the trouble to make it there for the game, we both agreed to finish the game anyway. We failed to score another goal and I'm unsure what the final score ended up being but it was still recorded as an 11-1 loss.

After the game, we went back to the Airbnb, got some food, and prepared for the west of our games which were all scheduled for Saturday.