Having dispatched the Dreadnaughts, Lumen Christi returned to the Arctic Coliseum to face their thoroughly not-loved rival Chelsea for the third time this season. The teams split the season series, with Lumen Christi winning the last game in blowout fashion, 9-4. (SPOILER ALERT: that may be the final score of next’s fall’s LSU/Alabama football game.) Given Chelsea’s stellar record and earlier defeat of LC, the likelihood of another lopsided game was low…but single-elimination hockey playoffs are weird, man. They’re just weird. When it all comes down to one hockey game, one shot or one suddenly unbeatable goalie can screw up the whole thing.

As is the norm (NORM!) for rivalry playoff games, there was a big crowd. How big? So big that all the Blue Wheelchair Man Group parking spots were full! Come on, people. That wasn’t nice. You’re supposed to leave one for me.

What you don’t see there is the crowd standing along the boards all the way around the ends. It was a good crowd.

As is the norm (NORM!) for Chelsea/Lumen Christi games, there was plenty of violence. Most of it was legal, too.

The following photo is among my favorites of the entire winter:

Everywhere you look there’s some sort of awesome in the frame. Happy Chelsea player? Check. Ref signaling the goal? Check. Elated fans? Check. Child with the greatest facial expression in the history of humanity? Check. (Look just above the player’s shoulder.) If that picture were a pizza, it would be a Thompson’s Super.

While we’re on the topic of fun photos, here’s one of the goalie using the Force to make a save:

I know it might look like the puck is headed into the net, but he did make the save. The puck hit his leg and deflected straight up.

But let’s get back to the violence.

The Lumen Christi player looks deeply offended, but the referee wasn’t buying it. There was no penalty on the play. However, there were plenty of pleasantries from the Lumen Christi students in the background.

Oh, look. Another save.

The game remained uncomfortably close for far too long. Fortunately for my blood pressure and hair color, Chelsea finally pulled away.

With the game in hand late, two of the players had a brief conference.

The referees stepped in very quickly, so nothing came of it beyond a couple irrelevant penalties.

When time expired, Chelsea got happy.

With the 4-1 win over Lumen Christi, Chelsea moved on to face Monroe St. Mary’s Catholic Central.