Another exciting, down to the wire, overtime game, just like the last home game. But ultimately another loss, just like the last home game.

Awesome

• Latrell Harris had another strong game. That guy impresses me more and more every game. The PA guy on Friday night called him “Kid Rock 2.0”, which I kind of like. (Kim Squire, who also wore #93, was known as Kid Rock in the early 2000’s).
• Joel Coyle took two penalties in the first quarter, but stayed in the penalty box a total of 22 seconds because the Rock scored on the PP right away in both cases.
• After Brett Hickey’s goal to put the Rock ahead early in the fourth, he gave spirited, almost violent, high fives to everyone on his way back to the bench. I love to see that level of intensity. But Hickey’s a strong guy – I’d hate to see some Rock player miss a few weeks because a Brett Hickey goal celebration dislocated his shoulder.
• New England defense and Evan Kirk. Most Rock possessions lasted either 5 seconds because someone would shoot right away or 29 seconds because they’d shoot just before the shot clock expired. The Black Wolves D just wouldn’t let them get any good looks at the net. And when they did, Kirk was there to stop them.

Not awesome

• Nick Rose. He wasn’t terrible – only allowing 10 goals in 60+ minutes ain’t bad – but he didn’t seem to be seeing the ball terribly well. I think two of the first three shots he faced beat him, but one rolled wide by a few inches and he turned around in time to stop the other one. Another time he dropped to his knees thinking the shot was going low but it went high, and luckily hit his shoulder and stayed out. A few other times were similar but he wasn’t so lucky and they went in. Once or twice we saw him sliding to his right when the shot went in to his left. That said, a couple of Kevin Buchanan’s goals were just lasers into a corner, and there’s nothing Rose could do about those.
• Black Wolves shooters. I can’t count the number of times they shot and missed the net entirely. Sometimes it was because they were stick-checked while shooting, but not always. Sometimes, a lot of times actually, they just missed.
• Only 8477 at this game. I really hope there are a ton of people at the next home game, where they’ll be raising Colin Doyle’s jersey to the rafters. Doyle deserves that.
• Speaking of former Rock captains deserving to be honoured, it’s time for Jim Veltman’s #32 to be raised as well. I know Veltman and Jamie Dawick had issues (mainly financial, I believe) after Veltman retired, but that was years ago. Move on and do the right thing.
• The people behind us who laughed at Brett Bucktooth’s name when it was announced after a penalty. Disrespectful.
• Speaking of disrespectful, people who boo the refs when they make a correct call if it goes against the Rock. I don’t like it any more than you do, but the Rock goal in OT should not have counted. Disallowing the goal was the right call and the video replay made that clear, so booing the refs makes no sense.

Other game notes

• My friend Mike pointed out that there were no moving picks called the entire game. But there were a lot of possession changes (on both sides) due to players running through the crease.
• I wasn’t sure whether this was awesome or not. Phil Caputo and Sheldon Burns had a short but intense fight and immediately were sent to the penalty box. Burns got to his box first and while Caputo was walking by, Burns reached out for a fist bump, which Caputo gave him. I like the fact that lacrosse players will fight each other during the game and then show respect by buying each other a beer at the bar afterwards, but showing that respect ten seconds afterwards? Isn’t that a little too soon? Maybe, maybe not. I think I’m leaning towards awesome.