It's been a rough couple of months since the World Junior Championships. First, when the lot of us got back to Kitchener, it was less than a month before the trade deadline. At the deadline we dealt our Captain, Paul Winter, to the Kingston Frontenacs for a young winger name Willie McKee. After moving our Captain out of town, our Coach had a tough decision to make as to who would replace Paul as Captain. Eventually he decided on a Co-Captain situation. Nolan would wear the 'C' on his jersey when we wore the whites and me and Huddy would be his Assistants. When we wear the blues, I wear the 'C' with Nolan and Huddy as my Assistants.
Immediately after we traded our Captain, our team went into a bit of a slump. We dropped from first in the conference to sixth in a span of two weeks. Four of our top six forwards were experiencing scoring droughts and our special teams were just abysmal. But we started to slowly recover. Within another two weeks, we had leap-frogged Erie and Saginaw to climb to forth in the conference. Then after playing a home and home with Windsor, we managed to move passed them into third place in the Conference. We were gaining speed at a really fast rate. Another week and a half later and we have overtaken London for the lead in our division and second place in the Conference. Only the Plymouth Whalers stood between us and a return to first place.
Our first line had really turned up the heat. By the beginning of March, three of the top ten scorers in the league were Kitchener Rangers. Carey was sixth in the league with eighty-nine points. Doc was fourth in the league with ninety-four points. I was first in the league with one hundred and forty-nine points. We went after Plymouth's conference lead with a vengeance in the last two weeks of the season and by the time the season ended on March 16th; we had a four point lead on Plymouth and were in solid possession of first place in the Western conference.
Playoffs here are nuts. We played Sault Ste Marie in the first round, they're not even a major rival of ours but our fans sounded like they were out for blood every game! Thank God we swept the Greyhounds in four games; it was getting bad out there. Of course, it got worse when we found out we'd be playing Guelph in the second round of the playoffs. Guelph is our major rival, like the Yankees to our Red Sox or the Liverpool to our Manchester United. After a series that beat the hell out of both teams, Guelph went down in five games and we moved on to the Western Conference Final against our other major rival: The London Knights.
London tried to take the game to us but we on the first two games in Kitchener and the third game in London but the Knights battled back to win game four in London. But when the series came back to our home rink in Kitchener, it was all ours. We beat London 7-0 in game five in Kitchener to advance to the OHL finals. We spent four days eagerly waiting to see who we were going to play as Kingston and Peterborough were locked in a death battle to see who win the Eastern Conference finals. We watched Game Seven live on Sportsnet TV when we saw Peterborough pull it out in the fourth overtime of Game 7.
The Petes were tough. Because they're in the Eastern Conference, we only play them twice all season so; we weren't as familiar with them as we were with Guelph or London who we see six times a year. The Petes played great defensive hockey and they had probably the best goaltender in the league but they just couldn't keep up with our offensive firepower. Eventually Peterborough followed Sault Ste Marie, Guelph and London on to the ash-heap of the playoffs after losing to us in six games.
Now we're on the team bus headed to Kingston for the Memorial Cup. I know that it must seem tedious when I update you on the hockey goings on but it serves a point, believe me. The Memorial Cup is the Championship tournament of the Canadian Hockey League of which the Ontario Hockey League is only one of three subsidiary leagues (the other two are the Western Hockey League [WHL and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League [QMJHL). The Champions of the three leagues play in a round robin tournament along with the team from the tournament host city, which this year happens to be Kingston.
Now, I do actually have a life outside of hockey. I've spoken with Sasha a few times since the tournament ended in January. In retrospect, probably the smartest decision I've ever made was leaving the future of our "relationship" because I know she's got the brains to make the right decision. If it was me, I'd likely listen to the wrong head which could get both of us in a lot of trouble. I know she's struggling with it, so am I to an extent. But she's off to Harvard next year; I don't know where I'll be, so the logistics of any relationship between the two of us would be tricky. Can you even really have a relationship with a person you might see for four months a year? I know this sounds like we're getting way too serious for our age but you need to understand something; we're best friends, you don't risk that for a fling, it had better be real.
Add to which, the Rangers are very active in the community back in Kitchener. We went to the paediatrics ward of the Kitchener-Waterloo General Hospital a few weeks back to sign a few autographs and spend some time with the kids who were suffering from chronic or terminal illnesses. I spent some time with a boy who was suffering from some terrible strain of leukemia. He told me about how he was the best defenseman on his Peewee AAA team before his disease came out of remission. I sat by his bed for over an hour letting him talk about hockey until I heard the soft sound of pouting coming from outside the door. I excused myself very politely and I went out to see what was going on. Out in the hallway, there was a young nurse, she couldn't have been too much older than me, maybe six years or so.
I calmed her down and took her down to the hospital cafeteria. She explained why she was crying. She said that the boy probably didn't have much longer to live and from the way she talked about this kid, I got the feeling that she was particularly attached to him. You sometimes forget when you do what I do, that there are people whose work, while it may not take the physical toll, takes a much heavier emotional toll on them. I don't know what it was about that boy or maybe that nurse but I went back to see him once a week. The last time I went back to see him, he told me that he's be watching Game Five of our playoff series against Guelph and he asked me if I'd score a goal for him. I scored three. That was Friday night, by Monday morning he was no longer with us.
I got a call from Amy, the nurse, on Monday evening to tell me that he'd died. The two of us met up at a coffee shop, they're called Tim Horton's here in Canada, and we talked about all the times we'd spoken with him. I got to be a sounding board for all her frustrations and I have to admit. You never know when you're known for playing a sport, if you're having a meaningful impact on somebody else's life. But that day I knew. I knew that I had an impact on that boy in some way and I knew that I'd had an impact on Amy in some way.
Like I said, we're on the team bus headed to Kingston. I've got my head resting on the glass of the window at the back of the bus. My headphones are pumping Bruce Springsteen through my ears as I try to catch up on a bit of sleep. I feel a big form thump down in the seat next to me. I look over and see Nolan sitting there so I pull the one headphone off my left ear. "Thinking about the nurse?" Nolan questions.
"The tournament actually." I answer. "We've got a good chance against Kingston and Gatineau but Everett is going to be tough."
"Everett's going to be tough because they've got outstanding goaltending and a fantastic defence corps. We just beat a Peterborough team that had exactly the same mixture." Nolan replies. "But we got three days before the tournament starts, what's with you and the strategizing?"
"We just finished seven months of what would lightly be described as the gruelling hell of the OHL regular season and playoffs; it seems prudent to make sure that all counts for something by winning the Cup." I reply as I rub the sleep out of my eyes.
"Yeah, you seemed to be contemplating the Sandman Strategy right there." Nolan jokes. "You still worried about the draft?"
"Five weeks away? You bet your ass I'm worried about the Draft." I nod calmly. The one thing about Nolan is that even if he were to never play a game of hockey for the Flyers, he would still go down as one of the most NHL savvy prospects ever. "Heard anything?"
"Flyers really seemed keen on you but they're doing really well right now and their scouts just think there's no way you'll still be available by the time their first rounder comes along. Ditto Pittsburgh and Washington. I think the Devils, Rangers and Sabres are all on the bandwagon. I think out west you're looking at maybe Colorado or Dallas." Nolan wrings his hands. "A few Canadian teams are interested, the Leafs and Canucks are both bad this year, so their draft pick will be high enough."
We pull off Highway 401 into Kingston. I'll say that of all the cities that we travel to I like Kingston and Ottawa the most. They've got these great sweeping landscapes, beautiful scenery, historic buildings and great bustling downtowns. The rest of the cities in the OHL look like regular industrial towns from Ohio or Pennsylvania, but there's just something about Kingston and Ottawa. The bus wheels through the outer suburban area before stopping at a hotel on Kingston's waterfront. "And by the way, bud," Nolan puts a hand on my shoulder as we line up to file off the bus, "I arranged a little surprise for you."
I eye him suspiciously as we make our way off the bus. This Rangers team is walking into a tournament of four teams as the heavyweight. This makes this team a stark contrast to the American one that I was playing on at Christmas. We've got the goaltending, a strong and big defence corps and enough firepower to light up teams like the 4th of July. We run two lines that score like rock stars in a sorority house, one line that's a premiere shutdown unit and a fourth line whose sole purpose is to beat the hell out of you.
We step off the bus into the parking lot of the Confederation Place Hotel and I see a familiar form waiting for me. She runs over to me and leaps into my arms. Her arms wrap around my neck and mine go right around her waist. "Hey, knock it off!" I shout at the guys who are applauding wildly behind my back. "But how…?"
"That would be my doing." Nolan stepped forward. "Amazing what you can do with a little time, a cell phone and some cash."
"Not to mention a plane, a train and an automobile." Sasha smiles at me. We lock arms and head for the front door of the hotel. The hotel already has twelve rooms set aside for us and of course Nolan's got Sasha's first night. I'll use the money from my Nike-Bauer hockey endorsement to pay for the next nine days. We've got a light practice tomorrow morning and then I've got about two hours of extra time on the ice with the other three team Captains to film a few ads for Sportsnet's coverage of the Cup.
I don't know what I'm going to do tonight but I know what I want to do. This time her room's on the same floor as the rest of the team. I know that typical arguments about team moral would say that it's a bad idea to set one player apart from the rest of the team by allowing him to bring a woman on the trip while the rest of the guys get to trudge on through their loneliness. So, I made sure that I pulled every member of the team aside to make sure there were no hard feelings about it. Coincidentally, they all gave me the same response. The ones who had girlfriends back home told me that I'd suffered a cold Canadian winter without anyone to keep me warm, so it was about time I got me some. The single ones said there were no hard feelings since they'd be out chasing some girls when they got the chance over the next few days anyway.
The two of us retreated to her room. Normally, when we're on the road and we've got to stay overnight, my room-mate is Nolan. Needless to say I prefer rooming with a sultry female brunette. The second we close the door behind us, we're on each other. I've got her pressed up against the back of the door and we're locked in a heated kiss. It only takes a few seconds before my lips start working their way down her neck. She's completely left the floor. Her legs are locked around my waist and her fingers are running through my hair. I pull her tank top up over her head and move my lips down to her clavicle. I've got her pressed up against the door a little harder so that I can execute this next move with my hands. My hands move up the silky smooth skin of her stomach toward her breasts. This is a risky move, one I know that if I had tried previously I would have been shot, but the time seems right.
She reaches down and puts a little pressure on my hands to keep them where they are. "Wait." She says, biting her lip. "Not that this isn't great."
"It's fantastic." I reply with a smile.
"Don't you think we're moving a little fast? I mean don't you even want to know if I've reached a decision?" She questions but I have a hard time taking my eyes off those lips of hers which are starting to become a little swollen.
"Have you reached one?" I ask.
"No." She replies, shaking her head.
"Then no." I answer and go back to work on her neck. She puts her hands on my chest to indicate for me to stop.
"Weren't you the one who always argued that our friendship, our ability to relate to one another is too important to risk for a fling?" She protests.
"Yeah, but I'm asking you to make a monumental decision here and it occurred to me that you never make big decisions in life without some kind of sample. Think about it, when you want to buy a bottle of wine at a restaurant you get a tasting; when you want to buy a car you get a test drive; when you want to buy a house you get a showing. Why is that we shouldn't have a little sample of what we're considering?" I question, hoping that my argument has swayed her.
"How long have you been practising that argument?" She asks.
"I may have started on the bus but it's mostly off the top of my head." I'm still smiling and I hope with good reason.
"Alright, well I think there are flaws with your argument." She starts. "That having been said, it sounds like an amazing amount of fun for the next ten days. So, I'm torn." I move in hard and press my lips to hers. This kiss is an attempt to re-ignite the flame and it works. Her fingers go back to raking through my hair. "Oh God, just be gentle." She moans out as I carry her over to the bed in the room.
All I have to say is "WOW!" I know, I know, you're all thinking that I'm overplaying it. There's no way that anyone is that good on their first time, right? Wrong. I don't know how she managed to be…to be honest I don't even care how, I'll just accept it as a part of the mystery that is this woman and let it be. In fact, I start whistling that exact Beatles song as I slide my boxers back on and head for the window that overlooks Lake Ontario. Night has fallen over the city of Kingston and while I'm sure that I could be downstairs in the bar with the boys but I'd much rather be here.
"There will be an answer…" I sing under my breath a little.
"Let it be." Her soft angelic voice lingers over my shoulder as she wraps her arms around my mid section. The one thing I learned a little over an hour ago is that she loves running her fingers over the definition of my abdominal and arm muscles. I can feel her naked body pressed against my back and it is easily the best feeling that God has ever allowed mortal man to feel. I crane my head back over my shoulder and give her a quick peck on the lips.
"How do you feel?" I question.
"Different, not bad just like something's changed." She replies and starts to kiss my back. "But I guess something has."
"You think the clergy will be able to tell when you go back to school next week?" I tease and she lightly slaps my right shoulder. "So, is this what you expected when you got here today?"
"I never did know what to expect with you." She replies as she hugs me a little tighter. "What about you? Was it awkward or weird or you know… bad for you?" I turn around to face her and I take her head in my hands.
"I want you to put that thought out of your head right now." I lean down and kiss her lips. "You were……listen, I'm just a simple hockey player, my vocabulary pales in comparison to yours but all I can say is…wow!" She giggles a little and blushes. She's not the kind of girl who would take some kind of ego boost from having sexual prowess, she's of the mindset that there are some skills it is perhaps best to keep private. It's just another thing about her you have to like.
There's a knock on the door. I motion for her to hide in the bathroom while I go check on the door. I pull my slacks back on and do up my belt before heading to the door. I open the door to find Carey and Nolan standing there. "Dude, you've got to come down to the bar! Nolan's buying drinks."
"Yeah, I'm gonna need to take a rain check." I nod furiously. Nolan looks over my shoulder and sees the sheets ruffled and mostly hanging off the bed. Carey starts to sniff like a basset hound looking for something suspicious.
"Oh my God!" Carey announces. "You just had sex!" I slam the door behind me as I walk out into the hallway.
"You wanna keep your voice down?" I insist as I try not to laugh at the smile on Carey's face.
"Up top." Nolan raises his hand expecting a high five and I reluctantly oblige. He pulls me in to give me a pat on the back. "I'm impressed; I thought it would take you at least two days to seal the deal."
"Cap, man; the fact that you got a woman like that…you're my hero man." Carey's mocking me now. "So was she a wildcat or what's happening?"
"I'm not talking about that. Some things are gonna have to be private on this team." I reply with a slight look of disbelief.
"Yeah, I mean right here in the hallway sure. But tomorrow in the dressing room before practice? Come on, man, you can't be hording on the brothers." Carey pops me in the shoulder. "That's the finest piece of ass any one on this team has seen all year and I'm even speaking for the guys with girlfriends, you gotta share."
"You really feel that much of a need to live vicariously through me?" I chuckle.
"We share all our stories with the dressing room." Carey protests.
"Yeah, but you volunteer them. You're gonna have to torture me to get this story." I reply with a smug grin. "Now gentlemen, if you'll excuse me." I re-open the door.
"One more thing, man." Nolan pipes up. "Since we don't have access to a gym here, a bunch of us are going for a run along the water front, over the bridge to the military college and back at six tomorrow morning. You in?"
"Yeah, I'll be there." I nod and close the door behind me.
"What was that about?" She asks from the bed. I look over to see she has the blanket pulled up around her chin.
"Oh the guys wanted to see if I'd go down and have a drink with them at the bar and I declined. Then Nolan said a bunch of the guys were going for a run tomorrow morning at six and I said I'd go along." I reply as I walk over to the night stand and set the alarm clock for 5:30.
"I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning?" She questions.
"No, I have to get up at that time, you can sleep until whenever, just realize I won't be back from shooting the ad promos until around two tomorrow afternoon." I pull off my slacks and slide back under the covers with her.
It's two days later and we're about to skate on to the ice for what some of us will say is the biggest tournament of our lives to this point. We're about to skate on to the ice against the host team Kingston Frontenacs. Today, we're the late game. Two hours ago, the Everett Silvertips got off the ice after beating the Gatineau Olympiques 6-3. Tonight, the arena is full to the rafters and the atmosphere is electric. These teams all have something in common; they've got a future franchise player headlining their team. The Silvertips have Marcus Grundler, their Captain and best defenseman; the Olympiques have Andre Drapeau, a goaltender and a second overall pick of the Washington Capitals; for the Kingston Frontenacs there's Cory Stewart, a six foot and speedy centre who was taken fifth overall by the Dallas Stars. Our franchise player is simple, it's Nolan White. Nolan led all OHL defensemen in total points (56) and plus/minus ( 61), he's huge, he skates incredibly well for a big guy and I think he's one of the few guys who could stop a zamboni in its tracks.
We stride on to the ice and we see a sea of black jerseys in the crowd. Kingston fans are out in force trying to give their team every edge that they can. The one thing that's odd about the OHL, is that in spite of the fact that we have five Americans on the team, because the two teams are based in Canada only the Canadian national anthem is sung. But it's like that in most sports, so it's really not that odd. We stand on the blue-line through the Canadian National Anthem. Tonight, Coach is going with our good young goalie, a sixteen year-old name Josh Stafford. We line up for the face-off and Doc crouches over to go toe-to-toe with Cory Stewart.
Stewart wins the face-off for the Frontenacs and the puck slides back to the Frontenacs' defenseman. Carey and I go to work on the Fronts. I skate in hard toward the defenseman with the puck, he slides the puck over to his defence partner who Carey drops, rather unceremoniously, with a body-check. Carey scoops up the puck with his stick and turns on his speed as he heads in on the Kingston goal. I'm with him the whole way. He keeps playing like he's gonna slide the pass across and let me take the shot. He fakes the pass and fires the shot high on the blocker side. The Kingston goalie bats it away and toward the corner of the rink. Carey chases a Kingston defenseman into the corner. But the Kingston defenseman turns and fires a long clearing pass up ice. The force and direction of the pass splits our defence and lands right on Cory Stewart's stick around centre ice.
I've got to catch him and I've been back-peddling at full speed ever since I saw that the Frontenacs' defenseman was going to clear the puck. Cory Stewart maybe the fastest skater in the league, he's at least in the top three. Stafford moves out of the crease to challenge him. I've closed a bit of the gap, Stewart probably only has four strides on me no, which helps Staffs because he knows I can control the rebound if there is any. Stewart makes a hard pump fake like he's going to go to his forehand. Stafford bites and Stewart pulls the deke and moves the backhand. Stafford launches himself back across the net and catches the backhand shot with his glove, keeping it out of the net.
The arena comes to its feet to applaud that save. Staffs holds on to the puck to get a whistle and a stoppage of play. I tap him on the pads as he gets to his feet. "Nice save, Staffs." I encourage him.
"I'm a rookie man, they gotta go easy on me." He jokes. I head off the ice toward the bench. The first period proves to be a bit of a run-and-gun affair. There are quality scoring chances at either end of the ice. Josh is really keeping us in the game. He's faced twelve shots in this period and he's looked solid and in control while stopping every last one of them. There's a face-off in our zone and Coach sends my line over the boards. This time Doc wins the draw and pulls the puck back to Nolan. Nolan slides the puck over to his defence partner, Kyle McWilliam, behind the net. McWilliam waits for Doc who circles around back behind the net and has the puck dropped for him.
Doc picks up speed as he wheels up along the right side with me. He fires a hard cross-ice pass to Carey who's moving with speed up the left hand side. Carey takes the pass at full speed and is burning up into the Kingston zone. I'm able to keep pace with him. Carey slides a pass over to me as we cross into the Kingston zone I carry the puck for about two strides before firing the pass back to Carey who one-times a snap shot into the back of the Kingston goal. 1-0 Kitchener. I meet up with Carey behind the net, to congratulate him with a pat on the back.
Our line heads back to the bench to wait out the remaining forty-one seconds of the period. Eventually, the buzzer goes and we head back to the dressing after one period of play up 1-0. Our team is riding high, but considering that we fought all season to overcome some kind of adversity, whether it was injuries or not having six of our best players for five games over the Christmas break because of the World Juniors, it takes a lot to get our team down.
We all pull our helmets off when we get into the dressing room. We know that there's still forty minutes of hockey to be played but we're pumped. This is the only game in the round robin where we get to wear our blue jerseys, which means it may be the only game of the Memorial Cup where I get to be the Team Captain. American players in the Canadian leagues throw scouts through a loop, normally we dream about hoisting NCAA Championships. But those of us who are here know there's an off-ice value to playing in Canada, it acclimatizes us to the hockey culture. We learn to adopt a club loyalty instead of a geographic loyalty.
The guys are trying to keep the mood light in the room while the coach speaks with the defence. Needless to say, he wasn't thrilled with the amount of chances that we gave up in that period. When we hear the buzzer back out over the rink, we slide our helmets back on and head back out toward the ice. The Kingston fans are back on their feet, they want the Frontenacs to keep this game close and we want to take them out of it. Doc lines up for the face-off opposite Cory Stewart again. This time Doc wins the face-off and slides the puck back to Nolan. Nolan works with it for a second before sliding a pass up to me. I take the puck in over the Kingston blue-line and into their zone. Picking up speed as I wheel into the Kingston zone I move in around behind the Kingston net. I'm looking for Carey or Doc out in front of the Kingston net but neither of them are open. So, I fire a pass up to Nolan at the point.
Nolan uses his stick to drag the puck out toward the middle of the ice. He tees up a slap-shot and drives it through an open shooting lane. It hits the Kingston goalie right in the pads but the rebound bounces out front and right on to Doc's stick. Doc throws the rebound into the back of the net over a sprawling Kingston goaltender. 2-0 Kitchener. We skate back to the bench where all the guys tap me on the gloves. In this period, just like last period, Kingston controls the play for ten minutes right in the middle of the period. But just like last period, for all their scoring chances our great young goaltender Josh Stafford seems to have an answer.
Coach sends my line over the boards for our tenth shift of the period with about five minutes left in the period. Nolan has the puck back in our defensive zone and he's slowly moving up ice looking for his options. Eventually, he just crosses centre ice and pounds a slap-shot deep into the Kingston zone. Carey and I give chase on the puck. A Kingston defenseman tries to intercept the puck as is rings its way around the glass. The puck ricochets of the hard plastic of his elbow pad and out to the right side front of the net. The goalie is slow to react, I lay my stick on the puck and fire a shot up under the cross bar of the net. 3-0 Kitchener.
Not a bad game for me. A goal and two assists usually is a good way to start a tournament. We head over to the bench again to get some congratulations before taking what basically is the second half of a shift. Normally, you don't score after only twelve seconds on the ice. Doc takes the face-off, Cory Stewart beats him again and we're back to trying to hold off the Kingston Frontenacs for the remainder of the period. Doc stays glued to Stewart the whole time, there's no way Doc's going to let him anywhere near the front of the net with his stick on the ice. The period ends without the score changing, Kitchener 3 – Kingston 0.
This time, the dressing room's buzzing. Coach is trying to keep our head in the game so that we don't play as if we've already won. Nolan gives me a hard pat on the back as we walk into the room. "That last one was a gift, buddy." He chuckles.
"Yeah, you don't get too many of those." I laugh as I settle down on to the bench, in front of my dressing stall. Coach goes into a speech about how no game is over until the final buzzer sounds. We all nod as we pay attention. This time he leans into the forwards about getting back into the defensive zone harder when the Frontenacs take over the rush. But we all know there's only one guy in the room that's not going to get ripped on by the coach and that's our goalie Josh Stafford.
Josh has been our back up most of the year, but when our starter Ritchie Moran went down with five games left in the season, Josh really stepped up. Ritchie came back after the Guelph series but anyone who knows anything about goaltending knows that when one goalie is playing well, you ride the hot hand. All through the OHL Playoffs, Josh posted a .925 save percentage and a 2.31 Goals Against Average. This kid is only sixteen, he's not even draft eligible for another two years. I give Staffs a pat on the pads with my stick and he nods. Goalies are eccentrics, kind of like drummers, you don't want to screw with their confidence or mess up their pre-show routine. The kid's taken thirty-one shots through two periods and has stopped every one of them.
We head back on to the ice. Twenty minutes stand between us and our first win in the tournament that will stand between us and being the Canadian Major Junior Hockey Champion. Huddy's taking the opening face-off against Cory Stewart this time. Huddy wins and after a few seconds, it becomes clear that Coach is going to use Huddy's line composed of him, Langsy and Chief as a shutdown line against Kingston's big firepower line. It works and on the first shift. Cory Stewart's line doesn't muster a shot.
When coach sends my line over the boards we go to work at making the rubber fly at the Kingston goal to try and even out the shot count. But Kingston's goaltender is no slouch either. In the first ten minutes of the third period, our team fires eleven shots at the Kingston goal but they're all turned away. The pace of the game has slowed down a bit as coach seems to have figured out how to shutdown the Kingston firepower. By the time there's seven minutes left in the period, Spencer Kraft catches the Frontenacs on a change. There's only two Kingston defenders back in their own zone and even though he's a defenseman, Spencer is probably one of the best stick-handlers I know. He executes a nifty little toe-drag of the puck around the first defenseman, he dangles the puck around the second defender and lifts a back-hander over the shoulder of the Kingston goaltender into the net. Kitchener 4 – Kingston 0.
"That was nasty!" Carey enthuses next to me on the bench. "Damn, boy!" He jostles Spencer who comes back to the bench for some congratulations. That last goal takes the air out of Kingston's tires. They play at only half pace for the rest of the period and we win the game 4-0. Three of us are told to wait in the tunnel outside the dressing room for the three stars presentation after the game. Spencer gets named the third star. Even though he only put up one point, he may have scored the goal of the OHL season with that fourth one. My name gets called out as the second star of the game for scoring one goal and adding two assists. The first star was never in doubt, I'll let the Kingston Public Address announcer take it from here. "The First Star of tonight's game with thirty-nine saves on thirty-nine shots, from the Kitchener Rangers number thirty-one, Josh Stafford!" Staffs skates out and gets a curtain call as the game's first star. One game down, at least three to go.