Hingham 4, Hamden High 0

Coach V talks a lot about peaks and valleys. If you do not immediately catch on, I don't blame you. Half of the things the man says are utterly incomprehensible, but thats why we love him. In plain terms, peaks are when things are going swell, and valleys are just the opposite.

On a personal note, my week started out on top of a high peak. I was accepted to the college of my dreams and will be enrolling at Trinity College in the fall of 2011. I was shortly on Cloud Nine, and then reality struck. I was in an automobile accident Friday evening on the way to the pasta party. Luckily nobody involved was injured, but my car remains banged up and out of commision. Fast forward to Saturday morning, where I helped my father act as Santa for the local youth teams. After acting as Santa's helper, I generously covered the Saturday morning shift at the Hamden Rink for a friend. Everything was going smooth and I was about to lock up as our Saturday opponents, Hingham, MA, walked into the store to get their skates sharpened. As I was sharpening a pair of skates for the foes, I sliced my finger on the blade of a skate. I didn't think anything of it until the trainer said I should get it stitched, and my father rushed me to the ER. This was around 12:30 PM. Turns out, the gash was about a quarter of an inch deep and required 5 stitches. Amidst all of this, I had to get back to the rink at 2:30 for the drop of the puck. I was quickly stitched up, for the first time in my life, and made it dressed and ready to go by gametime. Needless to say, if I wasn't still rattled by the car accident, now I certainly was, and I found myself in a deep valley, as Coach would say.

Back to the team. Hingham came out storming, and took the first period 1-0. I never understood the importance of pre-game preparations until now, as I found myself completely out of it. The second period came, and we skated hard but Hingham put in 2 more. Trailing by 3 going into the third, we found ourselves in a "valley". We battled hard, but just could not get the puck to bounce our way, and Hingham put a dagger through the heart with a late powerplay goal. Discipline was a factor for us, as we found ourselves shorthanded for easily a third of the game, and the fast-skating team from Mass. exposed our penalty-killing flaws.

On a positive note, we got our first loss out of the way. More importantly, it seemed that the loss was taken well, and I can speak for myself as well as my teammates in saying that next week we will work harder than ever before. It isn't about how you go down, but how you come back, as a team's character shines more than ever during times of adversity. Next Wednesday, Amity will attempt to live up to the hype they've recieved as making the jump up from Division 2. As for us, we'd like to give them a warm welcome to Division 1. As Coach Hall put it, "Well, you guys gotta figure it out," and that we plan to do.