“We are the Champions, my friend. We’ll keep on fighting till the end.”
-Queen
It seems like it has been a long time coming for the Carolina Sled Hockey team. As the 20/21 season approached the team was ready to put in the work to claim what they felt was theirs. They did not want a repeat of the 19/20 season posting a stellar record of 8-2-2, they were heavily favored to take the crown going into the playoffs. But the hockey gods had other plans, Carolina was ousted in the 1st rd by the Nashville Sled Preds.
The team was determined to take the crown this year as they worked and pushed themselves in practice after practice, all during a global pandemic mind you. All the hard work showed during the regular season as the team finished undefeated without ever allowing a single goal. I guess goalie Odell Lambeth deserves a little credit for that. When the playoffs came around this year, the team was ready and took nothing for granted. The championship game had Carolina facing off against last season’s champs, The Charleston Warriors. It was a constant back and forth battle between the two goalies as neither wanted to give an inch. That is until late in the third when Gary Smith had enough and decided it was time to put this game to bed and ripped a shot from the left circle and hit the back of the net. The team went crazy. With just a few minutes left in the game, we knew we had to be a defensive fortress as the Warriors were giving us everything they had. It was a good fight but this time the day belonged to Carolina and the cup was coming home!