Page 109 of Justice for Puck Bunnies

The Airman makes a second attempt.

Vin stops it again, his eyes glued to the puck. He skates forward a half a foot to catch the puck and take it out of play.

They inch closer to each other.

A third shot, and again Vin reaches for it.

Brad backs off the player he’s guarding.

The puck slides free a foot from where the sticks are locked together.

Vin claps his glove down on the puck, but not before the player from the Airmen barrels into him. His arm is crushed under the legs of the falling player from the opposing team.

The stadium halts, the crowd holding its breath to see what comes next.

The players clear, and Vin’s there with the puck still trapped under his glove.

The audience screams its approval, and Vin twists his arm and shakes out his wrist.

Brad and the defensemen involved in the dustup check on their goalie. The guy who fell over him joins the huddle.

The Cannons’ defensemen shoves Brad out of the way. Brad punches the guy in the arm.

The Airman who’d fallen over Vin gets involved.

The guys grab each other’s jerseys and wrestle the other.

Vin backs away but skates into a ref.

The two fighting drop their gloves, and the Cannon gets an arm around the other guy’s head.

The other Airmen players barrel over to the fight and it knocks Vin into the goal.

And then all hell breaks loose.

You do not hit a goalie in the crease. Ever. It’s a personal offense.

Chaos descends and a dozen players on the ice find a target to pummel.

Vin backs away and slaps his stick on the ice.

Brad’s screaming at a ref and the ref screams back. They’re furiously pointing at each other and the ref is waving his whistle—yanked off its lanyard—around in the air.

The referees blow whistles and attempt to separate people, but it’s absolute bedlam.

It takes a full minute for order to be restored.

Players end up in the sin bin and lines change. The Cannons call a time-out to regroup.

Brad dramatically points two fingers at his eyes and then at the defensemen who started this all.

Except, I saw what happened.

Brad backed off. He let the guy by, knowing Vin was unguarded.

The last twelve minutes of the game are a blur because I’m so fucking pissed.

It’s bad enough that he failed to protect the goalie, but he did this to Vin.

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