Gandalf stays on his toes...and out of the net.

June 28, 2003

DOM-LAND, Middle-Earth—Sometimes you have to beg, borrow and steal. In the case of the Dom-Land Caribou it was Pippin begging a second opinion from the video judge, Strider borrowing a fan jersey and Gandalf stealing the game.

It was a tight checking game throughout, and the Wraiths, well aware of Sam's post-game comments last week, kept the 'Bou right wing as far from their goalie and his knees as they could. But with all the attention on the little Caribou, the big 'Bou had a lot of open ice to play with.

Late in the first period, defence-elf Legolas darted in, caught a pass from Boromir and banged the puck in over the Witchking's shoulder.

The controversy began when the Wraiths appeared to score the tying goal in the second period. Wraith #2 slipped past the 'Bou defence and crashed into Gandalf, sending both of them and the puck into the net . The red lamp lit and the Ringwraiths began to celebrate. They began to do something anyway.

But Pippin, who had collapsed from alarm when Wraith #2 charged the net, fell close enough to the goal to see that it had been knocked askew before the puck crossed the line. He immediately begged the referee to go upstairs to have the goal reviewed. After much consideration, the goal was reviewed and ultimately waived off. The Ringwraiths screeched a lot, but the call stood.

The screeching caused Frodo's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to act up, and the 'Bou left wing had to be taken to the dressing room for some strawberry Icees. It took quite a bit to convince Sam that he didn't have to follow Frodo, and it took even more to convince Merry and Pippin that they didn't have to follow the Icees.

"I'm not normally one to leave Mr. Frodo," said Sam. "But Gandalf said he'd be all right, and that he'd want me to help the team. But I was worried something awful."

The other bizarre bit of the night occurred when Aragorn got checked into the glass and began to bleed from the forehead. He skated around for quite a while making sure the referee saw the blood, but when he returned to the bench, he discovered that there were no spare jerseys available. Apparently there had been a nasty dryer mishap in the Caribou locker room. Since players are not allowed on the ice with blood on their jerseys, the Caribou risked being two players down.

Spotting a fan in the stands with an Aragorn jersey, the 'Bou center politely asked if he could borrow it. The young lady managed to nod before passing out. She was quickly revived, given a shrunken dryer jersey to replace her original one, and play continued. The generous fan received a signed hockey stick from the whole team, an autographed Aragorn jersey and got to hang out with the team for post-game Icees.

Gandalf played impeccably the remainder of the evening and kept everything out of the net, including himself to earn the shutout and the victory. Some of his saves were spectacular, bailing the Caribou out of more than a few tight situations.

"I may be old," Gandalf said, "but I'm limber."

"He totally stole the game for us," said Merry after the game. "He was fantastic! I was like 'wow!' the whole time!!"

"Me too!" said Pippin.

"About the dryer...thing though," Merry continued, "I have no comment."

"Me too," said Pippin.

The Ringwraith organization has said they will protest this game. The series moves to The One Rink in Mordor next week.

Notes: The votes are in and the outcome has been decided. Keep watching.

Notes Ia: Bubbles will be attending a MEHA...thing for a good chunk of July. Apparently, the scheduling committee was led by wargs. Although next week's Dom-Land update will be more or less on time, the following three weeks will be a lot more like less on time. Bubbles usually updates late every Friday, Bubbles Standard Time (Saturday for pretty much the rest of the world). She will try her darndest to keep to that schedule, however, with limited internet access and Bubbles' inability to calculate time differences, the updates may be a day late or early. Thank you for your patience.

Notes II: Read about the aftermath of the Elfhead concert at the Merry-Go-Round...Rink...Thing Where a Penguin Plays a Banjo here.

Notes III: View all the Dom-Land pictures and how they came to be here.

Notes IV: If you sent me something, see it here.

Playoff Primer

1) Each round is a seven-game series. Basically, two teams play each other until one team wins four games. That team wins the series.

2) There are no ties. If a match is tied at the end of three periods, the teams will play 20-minute overtimes until one of them wins or they both drop dead. In the case of dropping dead, all members of both teams have to be completely dead. The game will then be temporarily postponed.

3) The teams who have qualified for this year's playoffs are:
The Dom-Land Caribou
The Ithilien Rangers
The Uruk-Hai
The Ringwraiths

Whoever wins the Caribou/Ranger series will go on to play the winner of the Uruk-Hai/Ringwraith series for the Orlando's Bloomers trophy. (Bubbles would like to remind everyone that the poll that chose the name of the championship trophy was really weird.)

4) Although there are traditions of throwing things onto the ice in the NHL during the playoffs, (i.e. the octopus in Detroit) the MEHA has strictly forbidden the flinging of cephalopods. This measure was taken to prevent the injury and/or death of anyone trying to capture The Watcher in the Water.

5) For more hockey terms and...stuff, click on Hockey Speak.

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