Scooter's POV:
Riley and Cole skated off as we all started to get into position to start the third period. I saw Portman take his place facing Cole. I could see words were exchanged but I couldn't hear anything. From the look of it though Portman wasn't impressed with Cole at all which had Cole rattled. I couldn't help but smile. It was fun seeing Cole rattled even if he was on my team.
The third period started. Riley beat Adam on the face off and Varsity had control of the puck. Not that it mattered for long because Portman sent Cole head over heels into the audience. I wouldn't want to have been sitting in those seats. Even though Cole was my teammate I couldn't help but laugh.
After the officials cleaned up that mess the game got started again. With the help of Portman and Fulton my teammates soon found themselves on the receiving end of what they normally dished out. As I watched the period unfold I was grateful that I was the goalie.
As it was getting down to the end of the period The Ducks got the puck and made a charge in my direction. I tuned out everyone else in the arena and focused on the puck. The Duck who couldn't stop ended up taking the shot and as I stopped the puck I heard the thud as the Duck crashed into the boards.
Riley ended up with the puck and headed toward the Ducks' zone with it. Portman picked him up and somehow Riley ended up on the ice. The ref called a penalty against Portman for hooking and the call was not a popular one with the crowd. I was starting to think the crowd was on the Ducks side. Once Portman gave up complaining about the penalty he decided to get the crowd going from the penalty box. As the band started playing "Born to be Wild" he proceeded to stip in the penalty box. I couldn't believe it. This game was turning out to be a circus. As the Ducks went to change players though they ended up with too many players on the ice and got a bench minor. That gave us the advantage. With two Ducks in the penalty box the Ducks would be playing short with only three players to our five. Things looked to be going in our favor. Orion called a time out and brought all his players toward the bench.
After the time out, I watched as Banks, Conway, and Goldberg took the ice to skate the final two minutes. I honestly didn't think they stood a chance. Varsity got a hold of the puck on the face off and took a shot on the goal. I saw Julie make a dive for the puck and block it. Riley got a hold of the puck and had an open shot at the net as Julie was still down on the ice. It was a sure goal and then out of nowhere one of the Ducks leaped in front of the net and stopped the puck from going into the net. I couldn't believe it. From where I was at I couldn't tell which Duck had made the spectacular leap.
They were able to clear the puck out of their zone only to lose control of the puck again in our zone. Riley got a hold of the puck and headed back toward the Ducks net. As he was headed that way though Conway picked him up and skated in front of them. Riley made a fake to one side but Conway didn't fall for it and instead Riley got sent head over heels by Conway. Conway got a hold of the puck and headed back in my direction with it. Goldberg sent Riley down to the ice again and gave Conway a break away. I focused in on Conway's every move. Conway got past our two defense men, leaving the fate of the game entirely resting on me. Conway set up to take the shot and I dived to block the puck. As I hit the ice though I realized that Charlie had never made the shot. Instead he had passed the puck back to Goldberg.
I couldn't believe it. That was the last thing I expected Conway to do. As his teammates were screaming at Goldberg to make the shot I tried to get up and get back in front of the net. Goldberg made the shot and I watched as the puck sailed into the net. I was nowhere near enough to even attempt to block it. I couldn't believe it. I had lost the game for us. The only score of the entire game was made on me and to make matters worse it was made by not a shooter but another goalie. I was never going to live this one down.
Around me the crowd and the Ducks were going wild. I watched as Charlie, Banks, and Goldberg shared a celebration hug. 'It should've been us celebrating but I had to go and blow it' I thought to myself. I saw Julie skating down to this end of the ice to join in on the celebration. I stood up and skated out to her.
When I reached her I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her. I could see in her eyes that she was wondering just what the hell I was up to. I leaned over and kissed her cheek. I figured I might not get another opportunity to show her how I felt and besides she just won the game. She had to be in somewhat of a good mood.
"Great game, Gaffney," I told her smiling. I was glad that she was smiling too. At least I didn't have to worry about getting clobbered for kissing her.
"Thanks, Scooter." she said her smile getting even bigger. 'Man I loved that smile'. She skated off to go join in the celebration. I watched her until she got lost in the mob of Ducks.
I turned to head off the ice and saw Riley just exiting the ice himself. He didn't look to happy when he saw Mindy kissing the Duck who couldn't stop (I really needed to figure out what his name was). I suppressed my laugh. Deserved Riley right. Mindy had always been to good for him anyways.
I headed off the ice. I had just stepped off the ice when I heard Charlie shout behind me.
"Hey ,guys! Guys," he called.
"Hey look what Bombay did!" I heard Robertson call out. I heard some comments from the others too but I couldn't tell who said what. I looked up in the direction the Ducks were pointing. Toward the score board and saw the banner over the warrior emblem. It was the Duck emblem done in the red and black of Eden Hall. Around the duck emblem it read Eden Hall Ducks.
'Oh, Riley is going to love that,' I thought shaking my head and heading for the locker room.
"Nice try," I heard Jack Kabine tell me as he came up behind me. I just nodded. At least all my teammates weren't going to get on my case about losing the game for them.
"How about the move, Banks made," Ted Labine commented to Jeff Brown who was walking up ahead of us.
"Yeah, that was something. I thought Riley had the goal for sure," Brown commented. "Maybe we should have kept Banks."
"Don't let Riley hear you say that," Kabine told them. Brown and Labine nodded and then everyone got quiet as we entered the locker room which was quiet except for Riley banging stuff around making noise. He looked up as we entered the locker room.
"Nice going Scooter. You lost the game for us," Cole said from his locker next to Riley.
"Well I didn't see you giving me much help out there. You guys had five players to their three and they still got by you," I told him.
"You do know you're suppose to be on your skates during a hockey game, right?" Riley said snidely. "Its kind of hard to stop a goal on your hands and knees."
"I seem to recall somebody else spending the last two minutes of the game down on the ice," I said referring to the times the Ducks had knocked Riley down. I went to my locker and started taking off my hockey gear.
Riley didn't know what to say to that so he just went back to making noise. No one else said anything. I think they were afraid too. I was putting things into my bag when Coach Wilson stuck his head in the door.
"Practice tomorrow morning. Seven am," Wilson told us. I heard several of my teammates groan. I felt the same way. We hardly ever practiced on Saturday and when we did it was at night. I guess we knew now what Wilson had meant by his words during the break. Wilson disappeared as quickly as he had showed up.
I picked up my bag and left the locker room. I headed straight for the dorms. I wanted sometime to myself before Riley showed up and I also planned on getting to bed early so I could get some sleep before practice in the morning. The only thing I had to be happy about was the thought that I might actually have a shot with Julie. After all I could tell she hadn't been upset that I had kissed her. That had to count for something and I had the rest of the school year to convince her to go out with me. I had a feeling though that it wouldn't take all that much convincing.
-The end?
Note: Thank you to all of you who have reviewed this story, especially crazy4nc128 and Banksiesbabe99 who I don't think missed a chapter.
Riley and Cole skated off as we all started to get into position to start the third period. I saw Portman take his place facing Cole. I could see words were exchanged but I couldn't hear anything. From the look of it though Portman wasn't impressed with Cole at all which had Cole rattled. I couldn't help but smile. It was fun seeing Cole rattled even if he was on my team.
The third period started. Riley beat Adam on the face off and Varsity had control of the puck. Not that it mattered for long because Portman sent Cole head over heels into the audience. I wouldn't want to have been sitting in those seats. Even though Cole was my teammate I couldn't help but laugh.
After the officials cleaned up that mess the game got started again. With the help of Portman and Fulton my teammates soon found themselves on the receiving end of what they normally dished out. As I watched the period unfold I was grateful that I was the goalie.
As it was getting down to the end of the period The Ducks got the puck and made a charge in my direction. I tuned out everyone else in the arena and focused on the puck. The Duck who couldn't stop ended up taking the shot and as I stopped the puck I heard the thud as the Duck crashed into the boards.
Riley ended up with the puck and headed toward the Ducks' zone with it. Portman picked him up and somehow Riley ended up on the ice. The ref called a penalty against Portman for hooking and the call was not a popular one with the crowd. I was starting to think the crowd was on the Ducks side. Once Portman gave up complaining about the penalty he decided to get the crowd going from the penalty box. As the band started playing "Born to be Wild" he proceeded to stip in the penalty box. I couldn't believe it. This game was turning out to be a circus. As the Ducks went to change players though they ended up with too many players on the ice and got a bench minor. That gave us the advantage. With two Ducks in the penalty box the Ducks would be playing short with only three players to our five. Things looked to be going in our favor. Orion called a time out and brought all his players toward the bench.
After the time out, I watched as Banks, Conway, and Goldberg took the ice to skate the final two minutes. I honestly didn't think they stood a chance. Varsity got a hold of the puck on the face off and took a shot on the goal. I saw Julie make a dive for the puck and block it. Riley got a hold of the puck and had an open shot at the net as Julie was still down on the ice. It was a sure goal and then out of nowhere one of the Ducks leaped in front of the net and stopped the puck from going into the net. I couldn't believe it. From where I was at I couldn't tell which Duck had made the spectacular leap.
They were able to clear the puck out of their zone only to lose control of the puck again in our zone. Riley got a hold of the puck and headed back toward the Ducks net. As he was headed that way though Conway picked him up and skated in front of them. Riley made a fake to one side but Conway didn't fall for it and instead Riley got sent head over heels by Conway. Conway got a hold of the puck and headed back in my direction with it. Goldberg sent Riley down to the ice again and gave Conway a break away. I focused in on Conway's every move. Conway got past our two defense men, leaving the fate of the game entirely resting on me. Conway set up to take the shot and I dived to block the puck. As I hit the ice though I realized that Charlie had never made the shot. Instead he had passed the puck back to Goldberg.
I couldn't believe it. That was the last thing I expected Conway to do. As his teammates were screaming at Goldberg to make the shot I tried to get up and get back in front of the net. Goldberg made the shot and I watched as the puck sailed into the net. I was nowhere near enough to even attempt to block it. I couldn't believe it. I had lost the game for us. The only score of the entire game was made on me and to make matters worse it was made by not a shooter but another goalie. I was never going to live this one down.
Around me the crowd and the Ducks were going wild. I watched as Charlie, Banks, and Goldberg shared a celebration hug. 'It should've been us celebrating but I had to go and blow it' I thought to myself. I saw Julie skating down to this end of the ice to join in on the celebration. I stood up and skated out to her.
When I reached her I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her. I could see in her eyes that she was wondering just what the hell I was up to. I leaned over and kissed her cheek. I figured I might not get another opportunity to show her how I felt and besides she just won the game. She had to be in somewhat of a good mood.
"Great game, Gaffney," I told her smiling. I was glad that she was smiling too. At least I didn't have to worry about getting clobbered for kissing her.
"Thanks, Scooter." she said her smile getting even bigger. 'Man I loved that smile'. She skated off to go join in the celebration. I watched her until she got lost in the mob of Ducks.
I turned to head off the ice and saw Riley just exiting the ice himself. He didn't look to happy when he saw Mindy kissing the Duck who couldn't stop (I really needed to figure out what his name was). I suppressed my laugh. Deserved Riley right. Mindy had always been to good for him anyways.
I headed off the ice. I had just stepped off the ice when I heard Charlie shout behind me.
"Hey ,guys! Guys," he called.
"Hey look what Bombay did!" I heard Robertson call out. I heard some comments from the others too but I couldn't tell who said what. I looked up in the direction the Ducks were pointing. Toward the score board and saw the banner over the warrior emblem. It was the Duck emblem done in the red and black of Eden Hall. Around the duck emblem it read Eden Hall Ducks.
'Oh, Riley is going to love that,' I thought shaking my head and heading for the locker room.
"Nice try," I heard Jack Kabine tell me as he came up behind me. I just nodded. At least all my teammates weren't going to get on my case about losing the game for them.
"How about the move, Banks made," Ted Labine commented to Jeff Brown who was walking up ahead of us.
"Yeah, that was something. I thought Riley had the goal for sure," Brown commented. "Maybe we should have kept Banks."
"Don't let Riley hear you say that," Kabine told them. Brown and Labine nodded and then everyone got quiet as we entered the locker room which was quiet except for Riley banging stuff around making noise. He looked up as we entered the locker room.
"Nice going Scooter. You lost the game for us," Cole said from his locker next to Riley.
"Well I didn't see you giving me much help out there. You guys had five players to their three and they still got by you," I told him.
"You do know you're suppose to be on your skates during a hockey game, right?" Riley said snidely. "Its kind of hard to stop a goal on your hands and knees."
"I seem to recall somebody else spending the last two minutes of the game down on the ice," I said referring to the times the Ducks had knocked Riley down. I went to my locker and started taking off my hockey gear.
Riley didn't know what to say to that so he just went back to making noise. No one else said anything. I think they were afraid too. I was putting things into my bag when Coach Wilson stuck his head in the door.
"Practice tomorrow morning. Seven am," Wilson told us. I heard several of my teammates groan. I felt the same way. We hardly ever practiced on Saturday and when we did it was at night. I guess we knew now what Wilson had meant by his words during the break. Wilson disappeared as quickly as he had showed up.
I picked up my bag and left the locker room. I headed straight for the dorms. I wanted sometime to myself before Riley showed up and I also planned on getting to bed early so I could get some sleep before practice in the morning. The only thing I had to be happy about was the thought that I might actually have a shot with Julie. After all I could tell she hadn't been upset that I had kissed her. That had to count for something and I had the rest of the school year to convince her to go out with me. I had a feeling though that it wouldn't take all that much convincing.
-The end?
Note: Thank you to all of you who have reviewed this story, especially crazy4nc128 and Banksiesbabe99 who I don't think missed a chapter.