2004 Winter Carnival - Second Place

Nine teams from around the metro entered the co-rec C outdoor state qualifier this year.  Kayne stood in for Scott since Scott couldn't make the games on Saturday, but other than that, we had all the regular Sheep for all the games.  The numbers were great because we were able to have two full lines.

Game 1 Pool Play: Sheep 2 - Parkside 2

Parkside had two tall guys who could really shoot well. The rest of their team overcommitted quite a bit - including the goalie. We were able to swing the ball a lot and look for the open person on the weak side.  Their goalie was pretty good and stopped a lot of shots. Their team wasn't very balanced and had some weak links.

Game 2 Pool Play: Sheep 3 - Champps 1

Champps was a very balanced team.  They had one very good guy who played a physical game. A very nice team who gave us the Baaaa at the bar. They liked to post their women wide on the boards which forced our defense to respect it. Then the middle opened up and our center had to sag back to cover. We were able to break up a lot of their fast breaks which made it tough for them to score.

Quarterfinal: Sheep 3 - Dog Spit 0

This was a team from Roseville. Mike was their best player - Mike played with the Bucks in Omaha in 2003.  They played a woman in the nets.  They didn't get many shots on our net and they were able to plug up the middle pretty well on defense when we were shooting.  They tried the chip pass quite a bit as a way to clear the ball and try to create a fast break.

Semifinal: Sheep 3 - EPZ 1

The famous EPZ finally meet the Sheep in a tournament!  Rose and Janis played for EPZ and they did a great job.  Ian and Craig were very quick as usual and liked to run parallel on fast breaks. EPZ had scoring chances on fast breaks but didn't manage to control the ball much in the Sheep zone.  EPZ sent someone chasing Kayne every time, which helped by giving us the man advantage on the ice when we broke out of the defensive zone.  We had to be careful about making sure the shots got past the first person or we would give them fast break opportunities.

Championship: Park Liquor 2 - Sheep 1

We got to play against Terry, John, Jason, Megan and Alan in this game.  Jason played great and he got our vote for the MVP of the game.  Alan added a burst of speed as usual.  They knew our team well and marked up on Brian and Jessi in the offensive zone. Kayne played great in the net but one fluke got past after a deflection from one of our defensemen.  Brian put one in within the last few minutes but is was disallowed because he made contact above his waist.  We pulled Kayne out to play offense with 6 minutes left but couldn't capitalize.  

Great tournament Sheep!  Best ever finish at a state tournament!!!

Pictures were taken at the Minneapolis playoff game with the Winter Carnival trophy a week later (missing Kayne and Tracy).

Overall record:  3-1-1

Goals for: 12

Goals against: 6

Mc Murray Fields in St. Paul

North on Lexington Ave from I94.

Past Energy Park Drive and Gabe's by the Park.

Right after you go under the railroad tracks, take a left onto the one way.

The parks are on your right.