We won our league's lower division championship this year!
We played three games in the playoffs:
1) The team we played in the quarterfinal round beat us by 1 or 2 goals earlier in the season. We had a barnburner this go-round, but we came out on top, 7-5. The other team said they'd always had fun playing against us, and they were rooting for us going forward. ('Cause we've never had success in the playoffs.)
Well, after the 1st round win, the captain of the team we'd play in the next round (Busch League) started bugging me about changing the date/time of our semifinal game. Apparently most of their team was going on a camping trip during the time it was originally scheduled. I said "Absolutely not. We're playing at the original date & time." He said "Fine, but you've gotta let me bring some players in." I said that was OK as long as said subs were on the league-approved list.
As background, we beat them in the regular season - came back from down 4 to win.
So game time rolls around, and guess what? Ringers! We end up on the losing end of the stick. My team thinks we're done, until the ref calls the captains to the scoring circle. I skate over and ask what's up. Ref says Busch League's DQ'd for using illegal players, and my team would play the next day against "CCCP" for all the marbles.
Naturally, the Busch League captain flips **** and gets in my face about it. I skate back to the locker room just in time to hear that we shouldn't be happy about playing tomorrow if we play like we did today tomorrow.
The championship game starts - Blackhawks vs CCCP. CCCP beat us handily in the first game - they have a girl on their team who tears it up for RIT's women's team. We strike first . . . . up 2-0 on them at halftime. Our goalie's standing on his head for us.
The second half starts, and they get a quick one . . . . score is now 2-1. A bit later, I'm bringing the ball into the zone and dump it into the corner. I'm hit way late . . . . stagger to my feet, and see the greatest sight I could have possibly seen:
The ref is standing 15' away from me, and he's got his arm in the air. Delayed penalty! For the first time, our goalie successfully got to the bench & we got the extra attacker out. I make a beeline for the net, where the ball is bouncing around in the low slot. I get a stick on it & get a shot off, which the goalie saves . . . . but the rebound goes right to a teammate, who pots it. 3-1 good guys.
CCCP gets another one, but it's not enough. 3-2 Blackhawks is your final score.