Anatomy of a Call

I completed my second night of calling games at Ingalls Rink (aka the Yale Whale) in New Haven last night, and it ended with a flourish.

In the early game, Darien advanced to the Division I championship game with a 3-1 win over Notre Dame of Fairfield. Good game for sure. Decent crowd.

The nightcap? Phenomenal.

Fairfield Prep took on Notre Dame of West Haven. The Jesuits of Prep grabbed a 2-0 through two periods and opened it up to 3-1 with just over 12 minutes to go. The Green Knights got the score to 3-2 at 8:34 of the last period and tied the game at 12:34.

We went to overtime. Over 3500 were in attendance at the Whale. New Canaan goalie Mac Wright told us on Twitter that the doors were closed and there was an overflow crowd outside watching through the windows.

I'd like to believe a few listened to John Kovach and I on HAN Radio.

At 5:45 of overtime, Matt Wikman strolled up the left side, moved in towards the net and shot...



At first, I was really happy with the call. It was excitable. John and I allowed the crowd noise to fill.

Then I listened to it a few times. I'll still take it...but...

I wish I had climbed back on the call a little quicker after John finished his analysis (as the play began).

I wish - this is my biggest regret - that I had given more details. You have no idea that Wikman came up the left side...across the Green Knight blue line...and through the left face off circle.

You don't know what kind of a shot it was, or what kind of effort Knights goalie Wade Conlan made.

I'm OK with the excitement of the moment, I guess. I would have been a touch happier to insert the final score into the call, but I did say it after the end of the clip.

Maybe I let the crowd noise go too far before commenting (that's not in the clip).

Maybe I'm nitpicking. A lot of things go on in a moment like that, and this is hardly the first time I've done this to a big play-by-play call of mine. It goes with the territory.

I'll still take it.

I guess.