Page 97 of Released from the Sin Bin

No one expects us to win tonight with the way we’ve been playing and the Sharks have always been a tough team for us to beat.

We can do it. We can beat them.

The anthems are sung, and the puck is dropped. So far, no one has scored, and the teams are getting frustrated.

“Keep your heads cool,” I warn them when they start cursing each other out. The last thing we need is a penalty for fighting. “You should get baby Pierce off the ice,” I yell to Coach, noticing Braydon becoming more sluggish.

The coaches and team on the bench look at me.

“Baby Pierce?” Carter is the first to question me, as Coach Renan calls for Braydon to take the bench.

“I didn’t mean it condescendingly.” I wave him off, but he smirks up at me. “We’ve had sisters on our team and usually refer to the youngest as Baby. I wasn’t thinking.”

Braydon glances at me for the comment, but says nothing. I think I gained a little bit of his respect over the past couple of weeks. He’s actually starting to listen to me.

“Watch the deke,” I shout, but it’s too late. Our opponent fakes a pass, shoots, and scores. A perfect shot that sails right up the middle in-between the pipes, passing our goalie’s face. “Damn.”

Our team slumps over to the bench, feeling the loss already even if we still have fifteen minutes of play left.

“You got this, guys.” I clap to encourage them. “Keep skating fast. Drive those pucks.”

Carter jumps the wall for the change. He looks back and nods at me. A quick gesture that gets lost as he skates quickly past the blue line to get to the puck that Hines has held behind the net. He passes to Carter, and Carter breaks off.

“Go, go.” I pray he makes a play or gives our team some kind of momentum.

At center ice, he passes to Gentry. Gentry, one of our fastest skaters, moves past our opponent and passes the puck behind their net to Alex. Alex passes to Finn, and they keep control of the puck. Finn passes back to Alex. He shoots, but it’s saved, deflected to Gentry.

The crowd shouts “shoot!” behind us, but he doesn’t have a clear shot to make it in.

It’s passed up the zone to Hines.

Carter taps his stick down to get Hines’ attention, and Hines quickly passes back to Gentry. He shoots, but it’s deflected off the pipe. This is their chance. This is the best opportunity they’ve gotten and if they don’t get a goal, the game is done.

Any morale they have left would be stripped away.

Alex has the puck. He starts to shoot, but fakes it back behind him to Carter at the top. Carter is quick with a wrist shot, giving the other team no time to react. The puck sails up, and it’s too high, but Gentry raises his stick, deflecting the puck behind the goalie and past the crossbar into the net.

“Fuck yeah,” I shout and quickly cover my mouth.

The team celebrates around Carter and Gentry, and our spirits are lifted.

Carter eyes me and makes a motion of rowing a canoe while still standing with his stick.

It’s not a win yet. We’re tied with ten minutes left, but feeling the adrenaline of the goal, the team is playing faster and harder than they’ve been the entire game.

And to top it off, Alex gets a breakaway with a minute left to make the game winning goal.

Jocelyn waited for me to come out of the arena. It’s been forever since we hung out, and she finally has some free time.

We drove to O’Hallorans Pub for a quick drink to get out of the house. She’s been talking about Coach Higgins and the team to fill me in on everything I’ve been missing.

“How do you know that guy?” Jocelyn stops mid sentence to see who I waved to.

“Oh, it’s Mike. He’s a local firefighter.” I turn away from watching Mike and his wife dancing on the dancefloor to pay attention to her story.

“Since when do you hang out with the local firefighters?”

Another one, John, I think, walks past and winks at me.

---