Hi friends!

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, even hockey seasons. To celebrate all the fun we’ve had and to wrap up our twelfth season, we’ll be holding a Championship Night celebration on April 8th. We’ll have five games, so all teams will get to play; we’ll do player recognition, including 5 and 10 year players and each team’s MGHA All The Way Award winners, take a league photo on ice, and to cap it off we’ll have a potluck. We encourage you to attend the whole event if possible, and bring your friends and family to cheer you on!

Please note that we will start one hour earlier in order to have time for player recognition and the league photo. The schedule below has been updated and is as follows:

3:40pm: The Blue Oxen vs Ghostbusters
5:00pm: Blunicorns vs Pumpkin Disorderly
6:20pm: They Might Be Ducks vs Basic Bees
7:30pm: League photo!
8:00pm: Merlots vs Redrum
9:20pm: Raisin Trouble vs Black Sheep

We encourage the teams in the 6:20 and 8pm games to stay dressed after/be dressed before their games, and everyone else to wear their jersey before the photo.

Please sign up for the potluck on the Google Docs potluck sign up sheet, available in your email. We always need folks to bring things like paper plates and silverware as well as food. We’ll provide tables, but if you bring a crock pot or anything needing electricity, we recommend you bring an extension cord.

Finally, it’s time to choose your team’s recipient of the MGHA All The Way Award. The All the Way Award recognizes the player on your team who contributes something special to your team’s season. Who encourages everyone on the ice? Who learned everybody’s names and pronouns and made them feel welcome? Who has a great attitude in a game you’re about to lose 7-1? This isn’t about skill level, but someone who went out hard and had fun, and set a tone for the whole team with that example. Please send your nominations to your team captain ASAP.

Thanks everyone! It’s been a great season and we’re sad to see it come to an end.

On behalf of your Board, Social Team and Hockey Ops,
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they/them

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We will have our last set of challenge games for the season, so please sign up below. For this set, we have a low intermediate game (5:15), a beginner game (6:30), an advanced game (7:45), and a high intermediate game (9:00). You’ll notice a change to the intermediate games, an offering of a low intermediate and a high intermediate.  This is a result of the town hall where it was suggested that some folks don’t feel they fit into advanced but the intermediate was too wide of a net and included some novice players who are trying to challenge themselves.  Please choose the slot that makes sense for you.  As usual, please sign up for only 1 slot until after Saturday at noon so others have opportunity to sign up to play.

As a reminder, please sign up for a game where you can learn and play safely. It’s a good idea to challenge yourself, but only within your limits. In the advanced games, skaters do not “play down” in some of the ways that they try to do in our regular season games. More advanced players who sign up for a scrimmage below their skill level should facilitate game play for players who fit well in that skill level. For safety, HOps reserves the right to shift players if we feel you have signed up for a level that doesn’t match your skill.

4Mar2018 Challenge games

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Hi all,

The MGHA Town Hall will be held Wednesday, February 28th at 7pm at Glass Nickel East. We’ve reserved the basement room; stairs are at the front of the restaurant, to the side of the front door. The Town Hall is a place to get together and chat about the league and this season, get to know your board and fellow league members, and eat pizza! We will provide pizza, and drinks will be available for you to purchase.

As always, if you have anything you’d like us to discuss, please shoot a message to the board!

Take care,
-k8-
they/them
on behalf of your Board (Amanda, Matthew, Randi, Sara, Shelly, Tim and myself)

The MGHA Town Hall on Monday, February 5th at 7pm has been postponed due to the weather.

Info to follow once we reschedule!

We will have our 4th set of challenge games for the season, so please sign up below. For this set, we have an advanced game (5:15), two intermediate games (6:30 and 9:00), and a beginner game (7:45). As usual, please sign up for only 1 slot until after Saturday at noon so others have opportunity to sign up to play.

As a reminder, please sign up for a game where you can learn and play safely. It’s a good idea to challenge yourself as the season progresses, but only within your limits. In the advanced games, skaters do not “play down” in some of the ways that they try to do in our regular season games. More advanced players who sign up for a scrimmage below their skill level should facilitate game play for players who fit well in that skill level. For safety, HOps reserves the right to shift players if we feel you have signed up for a level that doesn’t match your skill.

4Feb2018 Challenge games

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Hi Friends,

It’s time for our annual MGHA Town Hall!

The Town Hall is an informal gathering in which we talk about the state of the league. It’s your chance to talk to the board and your fellow players, get an update on some of the behind the scenes things going on in the league, and spend some time off ice with league folks.

The Town Hall will be held Monday, February 5th at 7pm at Glass Nickel Atwood We’ve reserved the basement room and will have it all to ourselves. Pizza will be provided by the board and there will be bar service available.

If you have anything you’d like us to discuss, please email us at board@madisongayhockey.org and we’ll add it to the agenda!

Also, good luck to those folks taking part in the pond hockey tournament this weekend! If you’re not playing, we encourage you to head out and cheer on your teammates and friends.

On behalf of your board (Randi, Amanda, Sara, Shelly, Matthew, Tim and myself),

-k8-

they/them

Our challenge games are coming up this weekend. Since it’s early in the season we have some reminders.  PLEASE ONLY SIGN UP FOR ONE GAME until noon on Saturday, November 25th. Please sign up for a game where you can learn and play safely.  We’ll have two intermediate games, a game for beginners, and a game for advanced players.  It’s a good idea to challenge yourself as the season progresses, but only within your limits.  In the advanced games, skaters do not “play down” in some of the ways that they try to do in our regular season games.  More advanced players who sign up for a scrimmage below their skill level should facilitate game play for players who fit well in that skill level.  Inclusive play is exceptionally important in such a situation.  For safety, HOps reserves the right to shift players if we feel you have signed up for a level that doesn’t match your skill.

The games will be scheduled as follows:

5:15 PM – Intermediate Game 1
6:30 PM – Advanced Game
7:45 PM – Beginner Game
9:00 PM – Intermediate Game 2

See you on the ice!
-HOps (Tim, Matthew, Amanda, Mark, Courtney, John, Brian)

26Nov2017 Challenge Games

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Pumpkin Disorderly vs. The Merlots

(Listen to the game here)

It’s MGHA opening night and the 7 o’clock (7:10pm or 1910 to be precise) matchup is between the Merlots and Pumpkin Disorderly. The Disorderly made a statement early just 20 seconds into the game – they had already warmed up Merlots goaltender Nikki Veldkamp with a few opening shots when Disorderly defender Randi Hagen shot the puck from the blue line and scored off a deflection by a Merlots player. After that, both teams traded off offensive opportunities, engaging in a spirited battle. The Disorderly had another prime scoring change in the 1st, but co-captain Eric Witte wasn’t able to capitalise and Nikki covered up the puck, putting an end to that. Some other notable plays include Disorderly defence Chris Allman’s amazing set up passes, the excellent as always positional play by Merlots’ players and fiancees, Amanda Forbes and Miranda Soloff, and a dangerous shot at the point from Merlots’ defence Vlad Brik. The period ended 1-0 Disorderly.

The second period started with a strong Merlots volley, starting from their faceoff win by Mike Ekberg. Amanda hit Miranda with a tape to tape pass at the corner of the net, and Miranda elevated the puck up and over Disorderly goalie Joe Znidarsich (an impressive feat considering how tall he is even crouched over). The puck landed tantalisingly in the open crease for a heart-stopping moment, a perfect black circle in the semi-circle sea of blue paint, with a open gaping net mere inches beyond… before Disorderly defence Randi saves the day, clearing the puck and crushing the Merlots hope of scoring on that play. In one of their next offensive opportunities, the Disorderly score again, making it 2-0 by a goal from centre Brian Olinger.

Midway through the game, we were treated to the sight of one of the referees, usually some of the most accomplished skaters to grace our ice, jittering across the centre line in slow motion, arms outstretched, trying not to fall down. The ref recovered their balance successfully, and the game went on.

Both teams were determined in their quest to score goals, as is the point of this game. However, the outstanding play of both goaltenders made this a nigh impossible task, since stopping goals from being scored is their goal in life. Merlots goalie Nikki denied Brian Olinger a second goal and also stopped at least a few of Chris Allman’s fancy shots to keep her team in the game.

To open the 3rd, the Merlots dived right into another near-scoring opportunity. Mike’s shot took a weird bounce around the net and Disorderly goalie Joe lost track of the puck – fortunately, luck was on his side and he was able to find and cover it before anyone else had the chance to react. Pumpkin Disorderly hadn’t stopped being, dare we say, disorderly, and tried to wreak as much havoc as possible on the Merlots plan to score, but the Merlots got a few more good offensive opportunities – co-captain and defender Ashleigh Baldwin got a couple of great shots off, one blocked by Chris Allman’s shin pads (ouch), and the other turned away by goalie Joe. By the end of the game, the Disorderly were exhausted, icing the puck twice. With 8 seconds left, Merlots centre Miranda won the faceoff in the offensive zone, but the puck trickled just past the stick of the Merlots defender, and the score stands 2-0, with the victory going to Pumpkin Disorderly.

Never mind the score, though – both teams were extremely well-matched, and played impressively well in spite of only having 2 practices beforehand. It’s hard to believe this is the first time these teams have played. They’re both shaping up to be formidable opponents – the rest of the league better watch out! Both goalies made some impressive saves, and the final score would have been much higher without both goaltenders’ skill and expertise in net.

However, the star of the game has to go to Pumpkin Disorderly player Randi, who not only scored the game winning goal 20 seconds into the game, but made a just as important save when an answering Merlots goal seemed inevitable. When asked about that save, she said that she was “grateful that I was able to get that one out. But I made up for it – later, I shot the puck right back to Joe and was so glad that he caught it. Witte told us on the bench afterwards, ‘Remember, we’re shooting at the other net’.”

She made no mistake about which net to shoot at when she scored her goal. She wasn’t expecting it to go in, as Nikki had it well in her sights before the deflection – a prime example of why it’s never a bad idea to send the puck to the net, as you never know what will happen. And to score right off the bat like that? “It felt fantastic,” Randi said.

Fellow teammate McKenzie Zeiss caught up to us outside of the locker room. “Is [Randi] telling you how awesome she is? She was pretty awesome.”