After games like the one on Friday night at the Agrena, perhaps it is time for hockey fans to receive an official health warning: this sport can seriously damage your health.
It can cause heart palpitations, dizziness, anxiety attacks and violent mood swings. It can do terrible things to your nerves. It can probably cause dramatic hair loss.
Please note that if you’re a coach, then these symptoms may well be doubly severe.
In their last home game before Christmas, the Barrhead Steelers took the Agrena crowd and their coaching staff on a pulse-pounding rollercoaster ride that touched great highs in the first period, before descending to a bumpy second period and an increasingly frantic and desperate climax.
First, the dream start against the Ponoka Midget Wolves.
It was Lukas Weeks who got things rolling for the Steelers with a goal at 9:55, assisted by Grayson Mills.
Mills then turned goalscorer at 8:11 before Brett Bujold plundered a brace - the first at 5:16, assisted by Koby Adams and Eric Schmidt, and the second at 1:58.
At 4-0 the Steelers were in cruise control ... and that is where the problems can be traced. It was all too easy.
When Riley Workman scored for the Wolves at 18:36 in the second period, to many observers – and to the Steelers themselves – it probably felt more like a consolation goal than a harbinger of an amazing comeback.
That sense that Ponoka had left themselves too high a mountain to climb seemed to linger for the remainder of the period, which ended with the Steelers ahead 6-4. Zak Laun and Bujold’s hat trick goal had kept the home side ahead.
Although Tyler Nicholson increased the Steelers’ advantage at 14:43 in the third period, the Wolves still played with remarkable self-belief. Not once was there a suggestion of defeat.
The Wolves then went on a three-goal rampage which left the Steelers struggling to maintain discipline.
When the buzzer sounded it was Ponoka who were doing the celebrating, crowding around their goalie, doing high fives. And no wonder: they had overturned a 4-0 first period deficit to tie the game 7-7. Indeed, had the game continued, they were the more likely winners. To the Steelers, the tie seemed like a loss, something confirmed by assistant coach Greg Schmidt.
“We played one good period,” he said. “I thought we played really well. Ponoka put themselves out of position and we capitalized on our chances and scored. I guess it was 4-0 and we thought we had a win and kind of quit.
“Once we gave them some momentum it was hard to get it back.”
Schmidt said the Steelers ran into penalty problems in the second period. Too many defensive lapses handed the initiative to Ponoka.
“We killed a lot of penalties, but it’s too taxing to kill that many of them. I think we gave up three power play goals.
“It was a tough game, but a frustrating one for coaches. We know the team is a lot better than that.”
Schmidt gave credit to Ponoka for battling their way back into the game.
“They left on a high and deservedly so,” he said.
“For us it feels like a loss. It was a game we should have won, but didn’t.”
Schmidt said the Steelers were now going to work on their discipline.
“It’s selfish to take so many penalties,” he said. “All you are doing is hurting your team.”
The Steelers now have a two-week break before two away games. On Dec. 21, they face Red Deer King’s and the next day they take on Stettler Legion, hoping to avenge a 5-2 loss on Dec. 1.
Their next home game is on Jan. 3 against Edson Midget A.
