A moment a lot of the players have been waiting for. Jake was sure that everyone was nervous. He wouldn't admit it, especially Monika, but he had a bit of nerves. But who wouldn't, he was about to skate out on the ice of the Enterprise Center. They hit the ice and Jake heads to the net. As the team goes through warm ups, Jake notices it sounds like some Metallica playing, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Once the pregame warm ups is done, the starting line ups stay out along with Jake and the opposing net minder.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of the St.Louis Hockey Cardinals, and Major League Hockey, we would like to welcome you to today's preseason game against the Death City Reapers. Now we ask everyone to rise and remove your caps for the singing of our national anthem." The public service announer says as the anthem starts. Jake mouths along and gets a nice chuckle when the crowd ends the song with BLUES instead of BRAVE. After a few minutes, the and linesmen get everybody ready to drop the puck. Jake notes who is on the ice with him. Josh, on the left hind side in the number 62, and Bray Swanson, to the right in the number 69, are on the blue line. With Mitchell Zane, center number 22, Luchious Marz, left wing number 23, and Ben Parker, right wing number 19 as the forwards. The puck drops and after a few seconds, Mitchell wins the faceoff and the puck comes to Josh, who passes up to Luchious. He pushes into the offensive zone, before dropping the puck back to the point for Josh. Josh holds onto the puck, looking for a shooting lane, before passing it to Bray. Bray fires a slap shot, but the goalie puts it into the corner where number 66 of the Reapers grabs the puck and passes it up to number 8 who pushes out of the neutral zone. Bray and Josh get back in time to make the rush a bit more even, Bray even puts his stick out just in time to redirect the pass, but it is now heading towards Jake. Jake takes it in the chest and kills the play. One of the forwards of the Reapers skates up and sprays Jake a bit with snow and mouths at him. Josh steps in and grabs him by the collar. The umps pull the two apart and gets everyone set. The momentum is back and forth, neither goalie giving up anything. That is until just over halfway through the 1st period, the Reapers dump the puck for a change and both teams' second lines get off the ice. The first player on is Monika, who is on the right wing, and she comes over to pick up the puck from Jake behind the net.
"Go get 'em Hall." Jake says as she zips past him and moves up ice. A defender catches up to her, but she easily torches the and fakes out the opposing goalie to score. The goal horn blasts and the crowd cheers as the rest of her fellow skaters congratulate her. Once the players get set for the puck drop and the Cards win the face-off.
"Cardinal's goal, scored by number 34 Monika Hall, assisted by number 1 Jake Meredith. Time of the goal, 12 minutes, 17 seconds." The announcer says as the puck comes the other way. Jake squares up to the shooter and denies the shot with a high blocker save, he tries for the rebound, but Jake stuffs it and it heads to the opposite side of the rink, right to a Reapers player who tries for a snap shot, but Jake slides over and gets the tip of the glove on the puck to send it back behind the net. Another Reapers player grabs the puck and tries for a rap around, but Jake dives in just in time to grab the puck with his blocker to kill the clock and catch a breather.
"Nice job." Monika says to him as she gets set. Nothing much happens and the period comes to an end. Jake makes his way to the bench and into the locker room where he sits down and takes his mask, blocker, and glove off. He takes a drink of Gatorade and wipes away some of his sweat.
"Need a towel?" Jake looks up and sees Monika standing next to him.
"Sure, thanks." Jake takes it and finishes wiping his face and neck.
"Josh, come here." Bray says as he waves him over to where he, CJ, Alexa, and the Campbells were.
"Hey congrats on the goal, I know it doesn't count, but still." Jake says, patting Monika on the shoulder and she smiles, brushing some of her damp blond hair to the side.
"I like to think your assist was more important to the goal being scored."
"All I did was touch the puck, anybody could have got it. Even the other team." Jake responds, getting sighs and a face palm from Bray's small group. "What was that about?"
"Probably nothing to worry about." Monika says as intermission comes to an end. Jake makes his way to the net opposite his bench.
"It would suck to have a delayed penalty this period." Jake thinks to himself as he reaches the net and gets ready for the next 20 minutes, give or take. Nothing of note happens, a lot of back and forth, not many stoppages unless it went into the benches or the crowd off a deflection. About two thirds into the 2nd, the guy who fails to play mind games with him, number 1 of Death City, Star was on the back of his jersey if he remembered correctly, and started to make his way up ice, with Josh backwards skating in front. The Star guy and Jake's eyes meet as makes his way up the neutral zone, which was a mistake. Josh hit the brakes and lowered his shoulder… BOOM. Josh put him on his back with a clean open ice hit, as if he ran into a brick wall, the front row bangs the glass as he grabbed the puck, but the ref blows the whistle for an injury. Jake looks over to see that he is waving the training staff away, mouthing something before getting up, grabbing his helmet, and skating to the bench on his own, getting taps from everyone. Play continues but not much happens, end of two 1-0 Cardinals. In the locker room, Everyone tries to strategize on how to add on to the one goal lead.
"Whatever we do, we need to keep the puck in their zone. Blue liners, keep your eyes on the puck at all times, if you have a chance to shoot, don't hesitate." Mitchell says as the second intermission comes to a close. Jake returns to the net from the first period and the third and final period begins. The cards quickly get the puck and attack the zone. Bray carries the puck in and takes a slapper from the point, but it gets turned away into the corner, where Ben beats the defender to the puck and he passes it back to him. Bray passes to the point and Josh fires a one timer that just misses, but Mitchell picks it up and tries to jam it in to no avail. One of the defenders tries to clear, but it ends up back to Josh who fires a howitzer that gets a friendly ping from the crossbar as the goal horn sounds. Everyone piles on him and only stops congratulating him so he can high five the bench, before he turns to the net and skates over to Jake, who pays him on the head and nudges him with his goalie stick. With a couple of minutes left, the Reapers pull their goalie to give an extra attacker, the six attackers quickly make their way to the zone. One of the blue liners takes a shot that Jake puts in the corner, and a Reapers forward picks it up and heads behind the net. Bray cuts them off with a body check and tries to clear, but number 66 of the Reapers grabs it at the blue line and fires a shot that Jake blocks, but it stays in front of him, where number 45 tries to swat it in, to no avail as Jake pokes it away to Josh, who is able to clear with just under a minute left. Number 45 picks it up and starts to rush in and has a breakaway, but Jake once again stonewalls them and freezes the puck with 37 seconds left. The second line and pair come out to finish it off. Shawn Collins, center number 35, wins the face off and pushes the puck to CJ who manages to clear the puck. One of the Reapers grabs the puck and starts to move up for one last push, but Owen Jones, number 24 on the right wing, pokes the put away and tries for the empty net, but it goes off a defender's stick and into the corner as the horn sounds. Everyone celebrates the win before thanking the fans and heading to the locker room. Once everyone is changed, Jake is pulled out of the locker room to a few local reporters just outside the door.
"Jake, care to take some questions?"
"Sure."
"We know it was just pre pre-season, but how did it feel to be in net in your hometown?"
"It felt good, you know, nothing beats playing in your hometown."
"Were you at all nervous knowing that fact?"
"Maybe just a bit, did it show though?"
"It sure didn't look that way." They ask some more questions and after about five or so minutes, they are done."Alright, thanks Jake." Jake nods before heading back into the locker room. After an hour or so, the group walks to the van and Monika pulls out her keys to open the trunk. They put their gear in and make their way home.
"I wish I could have had more time." Alexa says as they pull out of the parking lot.
"You're on the fourth line sis, single digits are expected for you." C.J answers, getting a shrug from his older sister. They arrive home and bring in their gear.
"I am ready to slip into a coma." Josh says as he walks into his and Alexa's room.
"Tell me about it babe." Alexa agrees as she walks in after him and closes the door.
"Welp, I'm gonna head to bed myself. See y'all in the morning." CJ waves as he heads down a short flight of stairs before walking into his room.
"I'm gonna take a shower, what about you Monika." Jake turns to her as she pulls her jacket off.
"I'm gonna change, and probably watch some tv."
"Care if I join you after I'm done?"
"Be my guest." Monika says with a smile as Jake grabs a t-shirt and shorts and walks into the bathroom for a shower. After he gets dressed, he grabs a trimmer and shaves his small mustache off, the ends always grows long and annoys him. He steps out and sees Monika sitting on the couch with her legs across it.
"Mind moving your legs."
"No worry, I'm gonna grab something to drink." Monika says, giving the middle cushion a pat as she stands up and heads to the kitchen. "You want a beer?"
"I don't drink, I'll take a water."
"Right, I forgot." Monika says before the sound of a glass bottle being opened is heard and she walks back in. "Here you go."
"Thank you." Jake says as she hands him a bottle of water.
"What do you wanna watch?"
"I wanna see if we made it to Sports Center." Jake turns the channel to ESPN as they transition from news involving the NBA.
"And it might be pre season, but that won't stop rivalries from forming in the MLH. Over in Japan, the Metal Bey City Bladders hosted the Leaf Village Hokages, and this happens." The host says as it shows a clip from the game he was talking about.
"Hanawa will play the puck behind the net, and OH, Uzumaki came close to taking out the Bladers goalie." The whistle blows to stop the play and the Hokages number 21 barks at Bladers number 30, aka the goalie when number 78 of the Bladers comes over, dropping his gloves in the process. "And it looks like Tategami wants to fight because of it." Number 21 drops the gloves in response and the two square up and start to beat the piss out of one another, before they drag each other on the ice and the refs break it up. "And we will have four on four for five minutes, here is the call." The commentator says as the main ref comes to center ice after looking at some footage.
"Leaf Village number 21, Metal Bey City number 78, five minutes each for… FIGHTING." The ref announces, with some theatrics on the, fighting, as it cuts back to the ESPN desk.
"Naruto Uzumaki and Kyoya Tategami, the first players to fight in the MLH, and Uzumaki almost had another two for goalie interference. But after further review, they did come to the conclusion that he did not hit Benkei Hanawa, the Blader net minder." he says as it shows the Reapers' and Cardinals' logos. "And in St.Louis, just over halfway through the 2nd period, down by one, Black Star heads into the neutral zone, eyes on the net. And there are two ways to defend a rush as a defenseman. One is to poke at the puck with your stick, the other is to use the body, and Cardinals blue liner Josh Meredith picked the latter."
"Black Star into the neutral zone, Meredith in front of him, OHH, Black Star ran into a brick wall just now, and the play is stopped off that hit. It was a clean hit, but with how hard he got hit, it might have hurt."
"We would find out at intermission that it was serious, and that he had the wind knocked out of him."
"Mind if I change the channel?"
"Sure, just turn it to something we would both like." Jake hands her the remote and she changes the channel to Diners, Drive-in and Dives.
"Just our luck." Monika says as she sets the remote down and takes a drink. "Fucking Missouri and it's mood swings known as the weather, do you feel cold?"
"No."
"Well do you mind if I cuddle up to you?"
"Uh." Jake says, mostly with surprise before she presses against him, putting her head on his shoulder and hugging his arm.
"Too bad, I'm cold. Besides, if you get bored, you have something else to look at." She says with a devilish smile before turning back to the tv. An hour or so passes and Jake notices something wet on his shoulder.
"What the." He looks over to Monika fast asleep, with a tad bit of drool coming from her mouth. "Real pretty." Jake carefully moves her so he may get up and picks her up as Alexa walks out of her and Josh's room.
"What is going on here?" She asks with a big old shit eating grin.
"She fell asleep, so I'm gonna take her to bed."
"Okay, just don't get hands on with her." She says before walking into the bathroom.
"Did you use a special smelling salt or something?"
"No but it looks like you want to sniff… ah forget it." Alexa says through the bathroom door as Jake opens the door for Monika's room and sets her down on her bed, covering her with a flat sheet before leaving her to sleep and heads into his own room. He grabs his goalie mask and looks it over before setting it aside.
"I'll polish it tomorrow." Jake says as he lays down and let's sleep take over till morning.