hockey wrap up and other news

sunday proved to be the last day of official hockey games for the season. terri's team played its final game in the evening, losing a close game 3-1 to the top team in the league. actually a pretty good game--with the rest of us (doug, ben, emma and terri's dad charlie) there to cheer the goal diggers on. terri ends her season with 3 goals and an assist, and the top goalie rating in the league from the one game she had to play in the net when their regular goalie couldn't make it and she got a 4 save shutout.

emma's team lost a heart-breaker 1-0 sunday afternoon in the game that would've sent them to the regional tournament. it was a really well played game, following three other games in the previous 2 days. two of those were overtime thrillers, both of which the johnson como girls won with sudden death goals (one in a 3rd OT, the other in a second). while we were disappointed that they lost, it was actually kind of a relief not to have another overtime game.

of course, as one season ends another begins: softball tryouts for emma were saturday (between hockey games).

also on saturday ben's new band "call for none" had another rehearsal. excitement starting to build for their first show, the first saturday in april. they've found a drummer, at least for this show, and still looking for a singer but we think they sound good enough that they could get by without. it seems like they prefer that to have the guitarist allan's mom sing, though she has said she's available.

we've also had a great time with terri's dad visiting. the highlight has been a card game called 31 which he brought back from philadelphia. it's been fun--especially for ben who has won most of petty pots we've played for.

fine finishes

two season finales for emma in the last few days, with one more to go. one was basketball today: the girls followed up their big upset from last friday with a one point loss in a game that would've put them in the semi-finals. was a tight game that went down to the final seconds--they hit two three-pointers in the last two minutes to take back the lead after having held it for most of the game. emma had a really great game, her best of the year--anchoring us in the middle of our 3-2 zone and scoring 6 points on three outside shots in a row during our second half comeback. a very fine finish to a surprisingly inspiring season as suggested by the post-game photo that is included here.

the other finale was last saturday and it was probably even more surprising and exciting: emma's science bowl team tied for 7th in the state! they went 2-3 in the play-in rounds (including a last question loss to the eventual 4th place team) but scored enough points to make it into a three way tie-breaker for the final slot in the afternoon's brackets. even without their best player (an 8th grader who went home for lunch) they won and though they lost twice in the double-elimination they were competitive in both games. emma was especially strong on math questions that required quick-buzz-ins and had a lot of fun hanging out at an event where nerds got to act like jocks.

the final, upcoming finale? hockey of course. emma's team has their second round playoff game (they had a bye the first round) tomorrow night at 6. it is a double-elimination tournament so they'll play again on saturday no matter what so this one will take a few more days before it is really over. But we've got our finger's crossed that emma's roll of great finishes will continue.

the mid-winter week in review

so much to catch up on:

--biggest news on the sporting front--and its not hockey: the mmsa 7th grade girls pulled off a big upset in the first round of the CAA tournament yesterday defeating previously unbeaten (and #2 seed) st. peter clavier 25-16! as usual, our tough 2-1-2 gave the other guys fits, and finally the tough regular season schedule we played payed dividends. emma didn't have any points (her friend emily, who ben has been helping coach all year, was again dominant with 16) but she was crucial in making our entry passes and refused to let the other teams big girls get position down on the block. next game: weds, the 23rd at 4 against Nativity, a team we lost to earlier in the year but not by much. we're going to practice hard, tweak our defense and hopefully be ready.

--hockey news: emma's playoffs start next thurs, the 24th; terri has final regular season games tomorrow night (19th) and the 27th.

--ben got straight A's for the second trimester and as a reward got to have a pizza lunch with counselors yesterday at school. he says he ate 6 pieces and almost got sick.

--emma got great grades too but no pizza party; today she is competing on MMSA's science bowl team over at St. Thomas University.

--visit coming. terri's dad will be coming to see some hockey and spend the week with us starting next thursday.

--ben's new band "Call for None" apparently has signed on to play a show in early april; they'll be the opening act at a club in oakdale called "SOS;"

--since ben went with us to emma's tournament last weekend, he didn't get to go to the dance and couldn't be named duke. the honor went instead to vladimir

--and in more somber news: terri's grandfather passed away this past week in philadelphia. he was a remarkable 101 years old and died in his sleep, 14 days after his birthday.

--and, in finally, our wacky winter weather: 50 degree days midweek, now in the single digits with forecasts for 6-10 inches of snow over the weekend.

Three Time Champs

For the third weekend in a row, the St. Paul Johnson-Como Devils skated home with a tournament championship. Our favorite player, #8 (see photos), still can't believe how it turned out and how tough city girls can be.

This one was up in Cloquet just south of Duluth. It didn't have quite the drama of last weekend (hard to top 2 overtimes and 3 shootouts on superbowl sunday) but the competition was probably better and beating the rich kids from Edina, one of the most famous programs in the state, in the final game (4-3) was sweet.

The 10 team tournament featured 4 of the top 10 ranked teams in the state, not including our girls. Of course, with winning three tournaments in the past three weeks and beating at least five ranked teams in the process, we're thinking that they might finally get some state wide recognition themselves.

This week, they get a bit of a break in preparation for the final season playoffs that begin next week. Hopes are high that the team will do well in that competition though it is one of the toughest districts in the state (including the #1 seed Edina team from yesterday). But no matter what the last three weeks have been magical, even if Emma still can't quite believe it.

super sunday in review...and the duke derby

sure it was the superbowl and we had a really fun superbowl party at the house with a nacho bar and a bunch of friends (ben's como park high crowd and some of our adult friends) but that wasn't what made yesterday really super for us. it was the fact that for the second weekend in a row emma's johnson-como devils hockey team won a tournament championship! and they did it in unbelievably dramatic, exciting fashion. the game went to two overtimes and three shootouts, and wasn't decided until the last shot of the evening, almost two hours after the game was scheduled to start.

week ahead includes more of emma's sports: bball at 4, hockey at 7 (both the final games of the regular season schedules) and then a tournament up in Cloquet, Minnesota (past Duluth).

and for ben, the big thing will be to see voting results for como park royalty for the winter dance. turns out our guy was nominated for "Duke" of the sophomore class! some stiff competition for the spot (including one of his football buddies and a kid on the bball team) but his running mate (for Dutchess, we guess) is an Asian girl and the consensus seems to be that if the Asian vote comes out they might have a chance. the only catch is that ben will actually have to go to the dance to find out (you have to be there to win, in fact), something he has refused to do so far as high schooler. who really stands to win in this could be his friend hannah, who we think wants to go to dances but hasn't been asked yet so far...