Gunnar Stahl knew for a fact that he had lost it for Coach Stansson. He knew that if he had shot the puck a little bit higher, it would have soared over Gaffney's shoulder without any kind of trouble. But as he skated up to the net, feeling completely confident—knowing that he would make the shot. And he was about to make the goal look good, too. He was going to be the hero of the Junior Goodwill Games, a hero back home, the one who stopped the American team from winning another game in the tournament. Gunnar knew that he had an enormous amount of pressure weighing on his shoulders, but he didn't mind. He had been pressured to be the best ever since he had picked up his first hockey stick, at six years old. Gunnar was no stranger to any kind of pressure, and he hadn't felt nervous about anything hockey related for a very long time.
And yet—staring into Gaffney's eyes as he stick-handled across the blue line, Gunnar had felt a kind of sick feeling in his stomach. The look on Gaffney's face was an expression of complete calm. Gunnar had bobbled the puck briefly and then regained his composure. Why was it that Gaffney was so calm? What made her, a stranger to this level of play, feel as though she had control on the situation?
Gunnar had begun his signature triple-deke move almost automatically. It came so naturally to him now to "go with what worked", as Coach Stanson would have said. Although Gunnar agreed with him, he knew that this trick would eventually become obsolete.
Over the sound of the roaring crowd, Gunnar heard Gaffney start to count along with him: One... Two... Three...
When Gunnar wound up to take the shot, he knew that he wouldn't score. Usually he felt the greatest of ease as he brought his stick down in the direction of the puck, but today his top-of-the-line stick felt strangely heavy. As the stick made contact with the puck, he didn't flick his wrist, as he would have done if he had been completely into what he was doing. The puck soared into Gaffney's glove.
Gunnar knew right away that Gaffney had saved the shot. He had seen it land in her glove. Gaffney herself, however, seemed to be unaware that she, not Gunnar, was the hero of the Junior Goodwill Games. He tried his best to look disappointed when he saw the puck fall to the ice.
It was the end of an era. Gunnar had brought it on himself.