Page 159 of Of Pucking Course

Sam

The sound in the arena is deafening.

It’s game six of the Stanley Cup finals with five minutes left in the third period, and the home crowd here in Denver is losing their minds.

The Wolverines are up by one point. They’ve been aggressive every single face-off and have managed to win most of them. They’re playing like maniacs, but so are we. We’re on home ice, fighting with everything we’ve got. We’re playing scrappy, playing harder, skating our asses off, taking more shots.

Blomdahl has the hardest job of all of us tonight. He’s been unstoppable, transforming his body into a brick wall. Never has he lived up to his “Blomdahl the Brick Wall” nickname than he has tonight. He’s blocked all but two shots this entire night. I can tell he’s running ragged. We all are. But we’re also hungry for a win. We’re fucking desperate for it.

My nerves are going haywire. After losing the first game in the finals to New York, we hit a hot streak and won the next three. But then we lost the game after that.

The roar from the crowd shakes the entire arena. The cheers and screams from the fans are what’s keeping us going this far into the finals.

If we manage to beat New York in the next few minutes, we’ll be Stanley Cup champions. We’ll win at home in Denver.

Emotion surges through me just thinking about it. But I swallow it back. I can’t get ahead of myself, not when things are this close.

If we can’t manage to pull this off, New York will walk away with the win, and we’ll have to play them on their turf in a couple of days. They’ll be one game away from the championship, leaving us in the dust.

I take a breath and refocus on the moment in preparation for the face-off. I look over at Blomdahl. He’s stonefaced, his gaze sharp with focus.

Every muscle in my body tenses. The second that puck lands on the ice, I need to be ready. I need to do whatever it takes to keep it out of our net.

The referee drops the puck. The moment it hits the ice, Xander passes it back to Theo, who takes off.

He doesn’t make it far though before a Wolverines player checks him, hard. The entire crowd makes a collective “Oh!” sound. Thankfully, Theo hops up after a second, but the New York player is headed for our net with the puck now. Camden is on his ass and I can tell the Wolverines player is going to go for a slapshot before Camden can check him.

I head straight for our net right as he takes the shot and dive in front of it. The puck bounces off my chest.

I groan at the sting of the impact. Even with all the pads I’m wearing, it still hurts like hell when a rubber disc hits you that fast, that hard.

The entire crowd cheers at my save.

“Attaboy, McKesson!” Blomdahl yells from behind me. “I think you were a goalie in a past life. Wanna take over for me?”

I laugh. “No way.”

I glance into the crowd and see my parents, my sister, brother-in-law, and niece and nephew hollering for me. I smile. It feels amazing to have my whole family here supporting me.

I see Dakota next to them, on her feet, cheering. She blows me a kiss, then turns around, showing me the jersey she’s wearing.Myjersey. My name and my number on my girl. That’s my girlfriend cheering her heart out for me.

The nerves inside of me morph into a full-blown fire.

Camden takes the puck and flies down the ice with it. I speed after him, watching as he passes to Theo. He takes a shot at the Wolverines goalie, but he blocks it with his foot. The crowd lets out a collective disappointed sound.

But a half-second later, Xander appears and smacks the puck at the back of the net. I scream so loud, my throat is raw. But I can’t even hear myself because the screams from the crowd are deafening. They even drown out the buzzer.

We gather around Xander and celebrate his goal.

“We tied it up, baby!” Theo screams.

“One more!” Xander yells. “One more goal and we win! Let’s fucking go, boys!”

We do a quick huddle-up before getting into position for the face-off. Every muscle in my body tenses in anticipation.

The Wolverines defenseman covering me bumps his shoulder into my chest, knocking me off balance for a second. I straighten up and grit my teeth to keep from going off on him. Jabs like that aren’t allowed, but playersdo that to their opponents all the time to get under their skin. Unless an official sees it, it’s easy to get away with.

He’s trying to get me to retaliate, trying to cause a fight or a penalty during a close game, which could cost us big time. I’m not falling for it though.

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