Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95173 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95173 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“We’ll get it back,” Evan says, coming to me, and I just nod. I watch the face-off again, and this time, when they lose it and come back, they shoot, and I make a glove save. When the first period ends, the shots on net are eighteen to four. I put my stick next to everyone else’s and have my skates sharpened.
“We need more shots in the fucking net!” the coach screams when he comes in. “We need to go out there and play our fucking game. We need to stop doing turnovers in the neutral zone, and for the love of fuck, can we stop giving them opportunities to shoot on Mark,” he says and then storms out. I look down at the floor, not saying anything, and then I look up at Evan.
“I can’t do it all on my own,” I start, talking low. “I need you guys to put a couple of pucks in the net.”
“Let’s go out there, boys, and show them that they can’t come into our house and sit at our table,” Evan says, standing up. “Time to show them who we are,” he says, and everyone gets up and gets ready. We start the second period on fire, and with one minute to go in the second period, Evan ties up the game in a tap in redirect. Just like that, the game is tied, and then right off the face-off, we hustle into the zone, and they pass it from one to the other. Viktor takes a shot, and Evan picks up the rebound, making it two to one.
At the start of the third period, I try not to let my nerves get to me. I am on point, but with four minutes to go, they pull the goalie, leaving it with six against five. They come into the zone, and our team makes good, blocking and not giving them a chance to shoot the puck. But one gets past, and after I block it, they scramble in the front for the rebound. I put my blocker down on the puck, and then one of the other team members slashes my hand twice. The referee blows the whistle while Viktor goes after the guy who hit my hand. Evan pushes him away from the guy while the referee picks up the puck. He skates to the side where they have a face-off. The hits are harder, the puck is all over the place, and I try to control my breathing while looking at everyone on the ice as they scramble for the puck. St. Louis does what they need to do to keep it in the zone, and luckily, the defenseman misses the pass, and it goes out of bounds, giving everyone a chance to change. Lucky for us, they have one player causing an offside so the face-off is taken in the neutral zone. I get down and ready for whatever is going to come, but we win the face-off. Evan just shoots at the net, and it slides into the open net. I put my stick up and look at the clock, seeing that there is twenty-five seconds left. I skate to the blue line and wait for the guys to come over and smack my glove and get ready for the face-off. With five seconds to go, the guys are already climbing over the bench. My mask is thrown off my face, I drop my stick and my blocker, and when the guys finally get to me, I’m pushed against the glass, and the guys just jump all over each other. I don’t know what is said, and I don’t know who I hugged and who I didn’t. “We fucking did it,” one person says.
“Holy fucking shit, we fucking did it,” another one says, and then we skate to the middle of the ice and get in line to shake the other team’s hands. The volume in the arena is almost deafening, and I can’t wipe the smile off my face. When I get to the bench, Matthew is there standing next to Max, and he’s already wearing the New York Stinger Champion hat.
He comes up to me and pulls me into a hug. “We couldn’t do this without you,” he says, and I just smile at him.
“You made this happen more than I did,” I tell him, looking out on the ice at the guys all hugging and talking, most of them putting on their new hats. I grab mine and put it on my head, and the red carpet comes out, and we know the Cup will be here in just a bit. Evan comes up to us, and we do a group hug with all of us smiling so big.
We hear the commissioner start talking, and all of us turn to look at him as we stand in a line. I look down both sides, and all the guys have smiles on their faces. I look up and see my mother and Vivienne holding each other’s hands while Vivienne smiles and wipes away a tear. I’m so entranced by her, I don’t even hear what is going on until Evan smacks me on the shoulder. “Go get it.”