The crowd was lively when Mal and Rose got to the arena. They had Tinny and Christian with them but everyone was sitting in a different part of the stands to get a good view of what was happening on the ice.

Rose got a call from Jake asking if she had any luck with the notebook.

"Yeah, the games that had stars were all lost by the Grinders on bad goal calls. In each case the goal referee called the goal, but the linesman overturned it."

"Was the linesman Cuffler or Doyle," said Jake.

"Can't say, but they were both refereeing those games."

"So it could be either of them," said Jake.

"Hi Leslie," said Rose as Jake overheard them on his phone.

"Put her on," said Jake.

Leslie took Rose's phone. "Hey, Doyle, ready for the game?"

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I came to see my man act manly. Plus, if the games are being rigged, I thought you could use an extra pair of eyes."

"We could at that. Do you know anything about hockey?" Jake asked, delicately.

"Enough to tell you Jerry Quinn was number 14 when he played 1 short season in the NHL," she said.

"Fourteen," asked Rose?

"Yup, he played in the same league as my dad."

"Jake", said Rose, "the numbers by the games looked like jersey numbers but they didn't make sense because there was a number fourteen written down but no player wore fourteen until you joined the team."

"Fourteen must refer to Quinn", said Jake.

"Ziegler must have figured out that it was Quinn fixing the games, but he had to use code in his book," said Rose.

"You don't think Ziegler was in on it", asked Jake.

"No," replied Rose, "the way the pages look I think Ziegler knew something was wrong but he couldn't figure out who was behind it until yesterday when he crossed off all the numbers except 14 and 6."

"Six is Fowler," said Jake, "I should have guessed."

"But we still don't know what ref it is or how we prove it."

"Leslie, was Quinn a close friend of your dad's" Jake asked over the phone.

"Not really," she replied, "my dad thought he was a bit of a skiver, but he liked pretty much anyone."

Behind Jake he could hear Quinn shouting at the team, "move it you arseholes and try to win one for a change."

"Gotta go," said Jake, "wish me luck."

Jake headed back to the dressing room for his helmet and stick just in time to see Quinn give Ziegler a black look and say "Ziggy, I don't pay you for your brains. Just get out there and play hard and stop protecting your head like a bloody girl."

The game started fast with the Flyers taking possession in the neutral zone and keeping it in the Grinder's end. As a defenseman, Jake didn't have much time for anything but blocking shots and cycling the puck up to the forwards whenever he had a chance. Fowler was a good centre but he couldn't seem to crack the Flyer's blue line. "But is he really trying", wondered Jake, just before another Flyer forward whistled past him towards the net. Luckily, the Flyers were unable to put on in the net in the first period.

Finally towards the middle of the second period, Jake landed a pass right on Fowler's stick as he was about to cross into the Flyer's zone on a breakaway. Fowler deked right, shifted left and roofed a gorgeous one into the Flyer net. Redmond, the goalie charged Fowler and sent him on his ass and Doyle, the linesman waved off the goal.

Jake could see Des waving madly that the goal was good and looking for Tinny. Mal signaled to Jake that the goal looked good to him, too.

Jake tried to get over to where the refs were conferring to see if he could hear anything, but he couldn't get close enough. It did look like they were arguing though. This would be a bad goal to waive because anyone could see it move the net when Fowler hit it high.

Behind him, he could hear a bit of a ruckus at his own bench. He turned to see Quinn tearing one off Ziegler and Ziegler shouting back that Quinn had betrayed the game.

Eventually the goal was called good and the game continued. Jake noticed that Quinn left Ziegler on the ice with very few breaks and he could see the player starting to tire. He asked Quinn if he was going to give Ziegler a break.

"When you're the coach of this team, you can make those decisions, but now, I pay you to play hockey and keep your mouth shut."

During the next break between periods, Jake called Mal and asked him how it looked.

"What, your skating? Like crap as it has since you were a kid. My God you're slow."

"I mean the case, Dad, how's the case lookin'?"

"There's definitely something fishy about the goal judging. And I think that the goalie looks familiar."

"Me, too."

As the third period got underway, Fowler scored another beauty in the Flyer's net and Remond challenged again. This time Jake was at the blue line so he charged Redmond and immediately recognized him as Wolf.

As he faked a fight he said, "Jaysus b'y, what are you doing?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing?" said Redmond.

"I'm on a case," replied Doyle.

"Me too," said Redmond.

"Kind of small case for you folks" Jake said as he aimed a roundhouse for Redmond's head.

"Hockey's my religion b'y, no game fixing case like this is too small," replied Redmond as he ducked and aimed one at Jake's solar plexus.

The linesman Greg Doyle pulled them off. "It's no goal, b'ys. Not worth fighting about."

"Whadda ya mean, no goal? It was about eight miles over the line. A blind man could have called that goal," insisted Jake.

"No goal" said Doyle, " now feck off back to your bench before I puts ye in the box."

Jake signaled to Mal that Doyle was definitely the bent ref.

The whistle blew for the faceoff and the next thing Ziegler was out cold from an elbow to the face by a Flyer player named O'Toole. The game stopped as the medics came out and Ziegler went to hospital by ambulance with a head and neck brace on. It looked very bad, but no penalty was called.

Jake skated over to Leslie and told her that she should go to the hospital to protect Ziegler and talk to him if he came to.

Jake looked over at Quinn who looked smug rather than concerned.

Next play, Jake ran straight at O'Toole, took him into the boards and pounded the crap out of him. They both got fighting majors which sent them to the showers.

Jake got his skates and pads off and then went looking for O'Toole. He was looking at his iphone. Jake grabbed it from behind and saw the text from Quinn. "Nicely done. See me after the game for your money."

"So you got paid to end a guy's career?" Jake accused O'Toole.

"Ziegler's a dumb old hack. Time he was out of the game anyway. He's nothing but a slow old man."

"And you're nothing but a moron with a broken wrist to end your season," Jake replied.

"What do you mean, I don't have a broken wrist."

"You do now", said Jake, slamming the hockey stick down on O'Tooles arm.

"Jaysus, b'y", he shouted, "you're crazy."

"Now tell me who else is in this scam and you get to keep your other wrist."

"Quinn organized it, Doyle fixes the calls and sometimes a few of us make a few bucks diving or missing passes or shots."

"Are you prepared to testify about that?" asked Jake

"Yes, b'y, just don't break my other arm."

"I didn't break your arm," said Jake, "you slipped in the shower like the klutz that you are." Jake waved the stick around.

"Right, tripped in the shower," confirmed O'Toole.

Jake heard the buzzer ending the game. When Wolf Redmond walked in the dressing room, Jake said, here's the sleveen you're looking for. Ready to make a full confession, eh, O'Toole."

Jake phoned Leslie and told her what happened, except the broken wrist. "Send Hood down here to arrest Quinn before he takes off."

"Way ahead of you Jake. Hood just confirmed both Quinn and Doyle are in custody. Wolf Redmond picked them up for us. Did you know he was working the case?"

Later that night:

Jake and Leslie are lying in bed and Leslie is nursing some of Jake's bruises.

"So what happened at the hospital?" Jake asked.

"Ziegler looked like he might not make it. I guess he has had one too many head injuries. But he toughed it out and came to, eventually. He confirmed that the book was his way of trying to solve the game fixing. He said he thought you were brought in by Quinn to make it worse, especially when he saw that Quinn gave you his old number."

"What will happen to him", Jake asked.

"Quinn, Doyle and O'Toole will do a bit of time. There's a few others who might get some community service."

"What about Ziegler?"

"Nicki thinks he will make it but he will never play again. Some of the other players have started a fund for him, though. He cleaned up their game so they want to do right by him."

"I love hockey," Jake said with a yawn.

"Well judging by these bruises, it doesn't love you."