Chapter 10

When the clock ticked over to 6pm, the journalists had their pens and note pads out, the photographers with their fingers on the button, the three youngsters' parents with their eyes glued to the ice, and of course the Steamrollers arrived ready to watch their fellow team mates in action. The opposition team; in the Grand Rapid Griffiths got into their warm up skate, and did the usual thing by practicing their shooting and passing game. Caleb had left the locker room early to get a sneak peek and from what he saw of their warm up brought a smile to his face.

'Such amateurs,' he smirked. It wasn't too long after the Griffiths' began their warm up before the three youngsters along with their Red Wings line mates' came out to do the same and they were accompanied by Scotty, Dave and Greg along with the trainers.

'Now, remember kids this is not about showing off who is the better player, but we want to see how you fair against the other team. We want to see you play at your absolute best. Give it the 110% we've talked about all week.' Scotty remarked.

'Yes, sir.' Caleb and James answered Ashley only nodded her head, the others could tell she was in no mood to make polite conversation and those who knew her particularly well knew when it was game time her whole personality changed and it was time to get serious.

'All right well let's get right into it.' Scotty answered he gave a nod over to the oppositions bench and their coach also nodded back and in the next instant three game officials dressed in their usual black and white uniforms skated onto the ice.

'Ok then this is how the game is going to work. We will have the usual three periods that will be 15minutes long, and in the case of a tied game we will have five minutes each way and if we don't get a result then it stays a drawn game.' The first referee said, all were agreement with the rules and it was game on. On this occasion Scotty left his assistant Dave in-charge of the team and instead he took a back seat to proceedings.

'Let's go Pearson you're up first,' Dave remarked.

'Oh, um...yeah ok.' She said and jumped over the bench, Brent and Doug followed, the Griffiths also had their line out there, and theirs consisted of centre man Rick Castle, left wing Jarrod Smart, and right wing Alistair Graham. For this game the defensive pairings were left out as the view by the Red Wings they wanted the forwards to be able to play both ends of the ice.

'Come on then, let's get this game underway,' the referee said he raised one arm and in the other hand he held the puck. Ashley was more than ready to take these guys on she looked around the photographers were already taking their photos and the journalists furiously writing on their notepads, and she moved to centre spot, Rick was there poised in readiness a grin crossed his face.

'I have heard a lot about you.' He remarked.

'Oh, yeah? Then you will know what you are up against then,' she said he just laughed.

'We'll see.' He replied. They waited for the referee, he stood still for a few more seconds then the puck dropped Ashley swiped it first and pushed Rick aside, and instead of following the puck he chased after her, she quickly ducked his attempted stick swipe to her head and halted to let him pass and before he had the chance to swivel around she was off down the ice along with Brent who had control of the puck and Doug. The puck was dumped in, and it was Jarrod whom went in after it but Doug just beat him to the punch, and they were quick to set up a play that left their opposition struggling to get any form of control. When the puck was dumped in-behind the goal Ashley and Rick were the ones to chase after it, and just like the one on one battle she had the previous day she went for the man and not the puck or at least faked to do so. Rick was the one this time to come in hard and fast and with both arms raised he looked ready to lay on a heavy check; but Ashley saw that move coming just minutes before he could execute it, and she made a dive forwards, in which she only narrowly escape colliding with him. Nevertheless she managed to get a slight touch on the puck enabling her to push it further, Rick spun around but Ashley was quick to get to her feet and before his fellow team mate Jarrod came along she side-stepped him and passed it over to Doug, he fired the shot it flew wide and banged against the glass. The puck rebounded out Brent managed to get to it before it slipped out of the zone. He made a spin-around move and flicked the puck across back to Doug on his backhand, and he in turn sent it to Ashley, she was on the opposite side of the net trying to shake Rick off her back as he kept pestering her. When the puck came it was enough of a distraction for him but, Ashley saw her chance, and again beat him to the advancing puck, and quickly shifting her stick in her left hand she flung a shot up, the save was made by the goaltender though, and the referee blew his whistle.

'You just got a little luck.' Rick remarked she shrugged her shoulders but kept quiet, they heard the call from the bench and changed, this time Caleb had his chance.

'I'll show you how it is really done.' He answered.

'Give it your best shot, Cal but I doubt it.' She remarked. Again the Griffiths lost the face off but they succeeded in forcing the puck out of the zone and it was their turn to play the attacking game, sitting on the bench, James and Ashley watched in silence as Caleb was showing a near flawless defensive performance.

'How the heck did that happen?' James mumbled Ashley didn't reply she couldn't believe it.

'That boy has improved right out of sight,' Scotty mumbled, James and Ashley in overhearing that comment cringed, there was no way Caleb could have improved his defensive problems overnight, something was up and they knew it. Soon enough though Caleb got to play on attack and his nature of being the typical puck hog came through on each play. While his two lines mates worked with him to give him the opportunities' Caleb made it all his own show.

'Maybe not,' Greg whispered. Their time on attack soon came to end and Dave sent James's line out next with the scores still 0-0.

After a ten minute break the second period got underway and still there was no score, the two teams had kept up a very good defence wall which they found difficult to breach. To start off the second period Dave once again went Ashley's line and it was no surprise the Griffiths used Rick's line against them.

'This time you won't get near our goal,' he said.

'Why don't you save all this talk and just play instead?' she remarked he muttered under his breath, the referee dropped the puck he dived for it, but again Ashley's quicker hands gave her the win. Doug had the puck and headed up ice and with Brent just slightly ahead he passed the puck and Brent flicked it into the zone Ashley raced ahead to beat the other players to the puck and in a blink of an eye she pulled a shot to the stick side of the goaltender he reacted and got a small piece of the puck but instead of deflecting out it rebounded off him and dropped into the net 1-0.

'All right!' the guys on the bench cheered except for Caleb, and even the players sitting in the stands were up and clapping, the journalists kept writing notes and of course the photographers had their fingers on the button to catch the images, while the kids' parents looked on, each of them surprised at what they'd just seen. Catalina and Daniel were proud of their daughter but it was as though they had never seen this side of her before and it was all very new to them.

'Ok calm down there is still work to be done.' Dave answered and it was Caleb's turn. And he went into this shift hard and his attitude went up a few notes. The hits he put on were furious and he wouldn't let up, but his temper was beginning to get the better of him now, and while Igor was able to get the puck out of their end, a fight broke out between Caleb and Todd Martin the Griffiths'' second line left winger. The pair traded blows though inaccurately and danced around for a couple of minutes as they tried to get into better position. As they continued to tangle Todd was the one who got Caleb into a fierce headlock and hammered him onto the ice that's when the officials intervened to break up the fight.

'Go to the rooms and cool off.' The head referee said he and his linesmen sent the pair back to the benches.

'Why should I? He started it!' Caleb growled he pointed at Todd.

'Just go,' the referee replied and pointed the way, the two guys went this caused a bit of a problem especially for Dave as he now had to re-jig the lines, thus handing more ice time to Ashley and James and they took advantage. James had his opportunity on the ice now and they were on attack, the puck movement in the zone was spectacular but soon enough it went wrong. James had a notoriously bad habit where when he felt his stick handling was first class he would over do it and easily turn the puck over and that was exactly what happened. The Griffiths' defence man Nathan Taylor was able to poke check the puck away, but before any recovery could be done by Drake, the other Griffiths players made the play to the other end of the ice, they were fast and within a blink of an eye the scores were level once again at 1-all.

'Sorry,' James mumbled when they came back to the bench.

'Don't be sorry, son that is just the way the game works. We'll get it back don't worry,' Dave answered and it was Ashley's turn, and the first thing she decided they needed to do was run the opposition tired, as they too had used the stop in play to change lines. The face-off was back at centre ice, only this time Ashley lost out to David Hughes, the blonde guy, he smirked at her.

'Nobody beats me in face offs,' he said and gave her a tap on the head as he skated away; she shook her head and mumbled under her breath, but headed after the puck. There was quite a fight on for it behind the Griffiths' net and it was a tangle between both sets of wingers, then out of nowhere the puck was shovelled to the otherside of the zone and there was a mad rush after it, with Ashley leading the chase, and just as her stick touched the puck she was hit hard from behind and slammed straight into the glass she grimaced as soon as she felt a twinge in her left wrist.

'This is my territory,' David whispered he leant against to whisper in her ear then back off, both Doug and Brent jumped on him and shoved him away and the referee blew his whistle.

'Are you all right?' Doug asked and Ashley nodded.

'I'm fine.' She answered and it went into the next face off this time she won it much to David's displeasure and he took much acceptation to it and chased after her during the shift and at every opportunity he got he made it count.

'Get off!' she snarled when he kept hassling her with his stick, eventually they were able to dump the puck in the zone and jump over for a line change, and it was back to James's turn though by this stage Caleb and his opponent were allowed to return to the bench.

'I'll get him back,' he mumbled.

With two periods gone there was still no change to the score it remained 1-all, and that meant the start of this third period the intensity was about to lift, and regardless of it going into overtime the attitudes from both sides wouldn't change.

'This time.' Dave said.

'I want to see complete attention to detail. Leave no stone un-turned,' he added.

'Got it.' Caleb remarked and it was his line that was given the first opportunity and he wasted no time to get straight into the action. The puck was dropped and Caleb got to it first.

'Yeah! Yeah that's the way Caleb. You show them how it's meant to be. Do it on your own!' his father yelled from the seating area.

'Richard, please just sit down. You aren't making it any easier on him.' Judith said the tone in her voice indicating she had now lost her patience with her husband; not that he showed he heard a word as he kept shouting instructions to his son, and of course all of this was also being noted by the journalists. Caleb and his Red Wings pals eventually dug the puck out of their zone and with quick puck movements they created a 2-1 odd man rush with Caleb and Stu

'Go! Go!' Everyone cheered. The two passed the puck then it was Stu who made the fake shot before sliding the puck over onto Caleb's stick he perfected the one-time shot and hit the puck ever so sweetly and it flew into the back of the net.

'Yes! Yes that's my boy!' Richard screamed and pumped his fists. Dave called their line back and for the next shift sent James's line and they too played a very up-tempo offensive game this was putting a ton of pressure on the Griffiths' defence; Laplante then got a great pass from James and he fired a shot straight between the pads of the goaltender giving them a 3-1 lead now.

'It is difficult to split them,' Scotty whispered to Greg he nodded.

'They're putting on quite a show,' he said. Now it was back to Ashley's turn and just like her friends she wasn't going to waste any time, with the face-off won and Doug took it and skated behind the net.

'Ah here we go I know what they're about to do,' Scotty remarked Greg nodded and even Dave had a sly smile on his face. Ashley then circled around behind the net past him and the puck came to her and she set off down the ice, and before one of the Griffith's players came in to try and put on a hard hit Brent intervened and threw in a heavy hit, the Griffith's player landed hard on his butt. Ashley continued to skate on with her flankers dealing with their opposition and that was giving her plenty of space to move. She was over the opposition's blue line as she neared the goaltender he moved into position ready to make the save but instead she skipped and went behind him, by now the Griffiths' players had recovered and come to chase she ducked an oncoming cross check but at the same time tripped but managed to flick a weaker shot, easy save though for the goaltender, except he didn't' get the chance to grab the follow-up rebound but Brent had followed up and snared the rebound with his forehand shot the puck sailed into the net the score jumped to 4-1.

'Yes, yes! We are going to win!' James and the rest of the group cheered and swapped high fives Caleb reminded seated and mumbled under his breath he still had work to do and there was time left for him and he wasn't about to let his chance slip away because of that annoying girl.

'I want out there now,' he said to Dave but the older man gently shook his head.

'Not yet. I'll leave them out there for a bit longer,' he said Caleb grumbled but there was nothing much he could do for now. This time the Griffiths meant serious business as they made their attack they were able to hold the puck in the zone for quite a while and their shifts from left to right and through the middle was impressive, but still they could get any shot to reach the goaltender. One particular one time shot was a complete miss-fire but it bounded off the glass hard and slid across the ice towards the blue line and stopped only an inch short of crossing over. Immediately there was mad rush for the puck and Ashley was just about to touch it with the blade of her stick, she got shoved from behind, the weight of the hit threw her off balance and the side of her head smacked into the boards.

'Oh my god!' Catalina screamed she leapt to her feet her husband too was on his feet.

'What are doing just standing there? Do something!' he yelled and waved his arms. Everyone else on the ice was told by the officials to move back while the medical staff came on to see to the young girl.

Ashley looked around at her surroundings, it was pitch black.

*Where am I?* She thought she continued to look around.

'Hello?' she called out but all she got back was her own echo. As she continued to look she noticed the darkness began to fade away into a light white then more vibrant colours appeared. She didn't move just watched as it evolved around her, though slowly but surely things began to take shape.

'Miss Pearson.'

'Huh?'

Ashley spun around she looked to her left and right but saw no one.

'Who's there?' she called, again all she received back was her echo.

'I don't get it. Where am I? Who was it that spoke before? Someone please tell me what is going on!' She yelled into the empty darkness. Again there was a shift in the lightning that was surrounding her, and then she noticed a long rectangular table appear in front of her, it was covered by a black, yellow and white cloth and on it was one microphone. Behind the table stood a four panel background with the NHL logo on it, this brought a frown upon her face. A bright white flash erupted several times she put her hands up in front of her face and in doing so she started to hear muffled voices that slowly became clearer.

'Miss Pearson! Miss Pearson! Tell us what you are feeling right now!' several of the voices yelled, this was followed by more bright flashes Ashley now recognized as photographers. She saw movement over in the left-hand corner as a figure stepped out and into view.

'Oh my god!' she exclaimed. She watched with wide eyes as the prominent figure took their seat at the table and leant against the t able closer to the microphone.

'Well, I am excited about the opportunity that is ahead of me in the next few days. It is a rare occasion for most players and at the moment I can tell you I feel privileged to be in this situation and I look forward to the series.' The figure answered. Ashley shook her head she just couldn't believe what she was seeing, it was impossible.

'Ashley, Ashley honey. Are you all right sweetheart?'

Ashley heard her mother's worried voice and she desperately wanted to speak but her head was throbbing and her whole body ached, her throat felt dry and her brain seemed to refuse to work. All she managed to do instead was nod her head and she felt somebody pat her arm.

'Just rest honey, just rest.'

She swallowed her throat still burned and her lips felt parched but she slowly managed to speak.

'Wh...wh...what hap...happ...happened in the ga...game?' she asked.

'Shh you don't worry about that now.' Her mother said, but she wasn't happy and though struggled with her throbbing head she opened her eyes and slowly began to sit up.

'Honey really you should lie down,' her mother insisted but Ashley put her hands up.

'Mum please. Just stop worrying I know you and dad are all stressed out but I'm fine. Just a bit sore,' she replied.

'Well the doctor said you needed to rest for the remainder of the day and he'll assess you in the morning,' her mother replied alarms went off in Ashley's head she took a look around the room her mother was right, they were in a very plain hospital room.

'How did we get here?' she asked.

'Ambulance,' Catalina said she got up from the white plastic chair and walked to a small fridge that was set on top of a two-drawer cabinet. Ashley watched her mother open the fridge and take out a heavily padded face cloth.

'What is that for?' she asked.

'Just relax this will help with the bruise,' Catalina said, Ashley then raised her hand and touched the side of her head, immediately she winced the lump felt huge and it probably looked enormous; her mother came closer and gently applied the cool face cloth to her head.

Knock, Knock!

'Come in,' she said the door was pushed open, Catalina and Ashley turned to look at their visitor.

'Hi guys.' Ashley remarked, Doug and Brent along with Kris and Kirk walked into the room, and shortly after them her stepdad also came in.

'So, Pearson how do you feel?' Kris asked.

'Fine,' she said they laughed.

'Yeah and nice bump you got there too,' Brent teased she stuck her tongue out at him.

'Anyway we won't stay we just stopped by to make sure you're ok.' Doug added.

'Well thanks and I'm fine. But tell me what happened with the game.' She said again the guys laughed she rolled her eyes.

'Well if it puts you at ease, then you will be happy to know we did win.' Doug answered.

'Oh, there was one more thing,' Kris added he looked to her parents.

'Mike and Ken wanted us to come and inform you they are holding a meeting with you and your parents along with your friends and their parents in the afternoon at about 12:30pm.' He explained.

'What for? If they can't tell our daughter is in no condition to be anywhere. She is to stay here, in the hospital until the doctor gives the all clear and he said she would need at least 48 hours,' Catalina said.

'Mum.' Ashley moaned.

'I am serious Ashley you have no idea just how dangerous this injury of yours is, and who knows what possible damages could have happened because of it,' Catalina remarked she gave her daughter a fierce glare.

'Mrs Pearson we understand your concern but I do believe this is a very important meeting for all of you to attend,' Kris remarked.

'We will be there don't worry,' Daniel said.

'Good we will see you tomorrow,' Doug remarked, and the guys quickly left the family alone Catalina scolded her husband.

'We don't owe them anything Daniel, they've done enough and while it has been well worthwhile tonight's incident is one I don't want to see repeated,' she answered.

'Cat, let us just see what they have to see. Besides this has all been for Ashley, and the least we can do for her is to see it through,' he said.

'Yeah, please mum? I want to know what they think tomorrow,' Ashley added; Catalina looked at her daughter then back at her husband the look on both of their faces was a pleading one she couldn't refuse.

'All right, we will go.' She said.

'Yes! Woo ho! Oh thanks mum you won't regret it I promise,' Ashley cheered.

'Yes and don't make me regret it either now you, get some rest and we will be back first thing in the morning,' Catalina added. A few minutes later with Ashley feeling a bit more refreshed after a quick meal her parents left.