Page 57 of Knot Dead Yet

I glanced at Kane as I tried to deke out Burger. Making it look like I was going to pass it to my captain, I skidded to a sudden stop and darted the other way with the puck. Burger ran right into me, and as I was falling, I hooked the puck to send it Casimir’s way.

My whole body jolted as I hit the ice and the breath was knocked out of me.

Burger smacked his stick against my side as he skated past me. Asshole.

Everything in me protested as I scrambled to get up. The crowd was so loud I couldn’t hear if the timer was ticking down with the last seconds. Kane went around the Flurry’s net and shouted for Casimir to pass the puck his way.

The defensemen charged Kane as Burger beelined for Casimir. Just before Burger hit him, Casimir passed the puck. Not to Kane but to Maddox. Maddox who was ten feet in front of the right side of the net.

The Flurry’s goalie noticed at the last second. He dove to block Maddox’s shot, but with a flip of his stick, Maddox shot to the upper left corner of the net and scored.

The buzzer sounded and it was like the whole province was roaring with applause.

I skated to Maddox and jumped on his back with a hoot. “Way to go, man!”

Maddox hadn’t had a goal all season. Assists, yes, but since he was a defenseman, it wasn’t his focus. We all had been angling our tactics to get the puck to Kane to score, and Chicago expected that every single time. They might have watched for me or Ewan, or even Casimir who was fast for a defenseman, but not Maddox. He was our tank.

A tank with a short-handed goal!

Kane came over and bumped helmets with Maddox. “Good job. Game’s MVP!”

Even Casimir grinned as he and Maddox fist bumped. No glares or growls or death threats. I grinned and thought of how Kienna would love that. Her eyes would shine and her smile, oh fuck, her beautiful smile.

I skated over to my mark. There were still eleven seconds in the game. We didn’t have Ewan back, but we could hold off the brutes for that long.

Our fans were singing, and when the puck was dropped, they started to shout the countdown.

It seemed the Flurry knew we just had to hold them off because they behaved more like they were playing football than hockey. Burger lowered his head like a bull and rammed Kane. Ewan yelled obscenities at Burger and climbed out of the penalty box as another of the massive Flurry defensemen threw down his gloves and went right for Maddox.

Merde. They knew they couldn’t win, but they were going to try to get us all suspended.

Casimir flew into Burger and knocked him away from Kane.

It was chaos. No one had the puck and I nabbed it. The left winger on the other team hacked at me with his stick. “Fuck off!”

No way was I going to fight.

The buzzer went off as Tiergan dropped his gloves and stick to come forward with murder in his eyes too. The refs tried to break up the various fights, but the teams were already jumping out and joining the fray. Security was pouring down the stairs of the arena and coming toward the entrance to the rink.

Our win was a legitimate win. Chicago was trying to make this a fiasco and take our lead in the series from us.

Someone slammed into me and squished me against the boards. I winced as my head hit at a weird angle. The prick called me a ‘snowfrog’ and took off when I wouldn’t hit him back. I tried to stand on my own and wobbled, grabbing onto the boards for support. My stomach twisted and I swallowed the feeling of having to throw up.

Fucker gave me a concussion. If a doctor checked me out and gave me the official verdict, I could miss out on playing in the rest of the play-offs.

I straightened. No one could see how I was hurt. I couldn’t let anyone know. I needed to get off the ice and back to the locker room. Then I could sit and I’d be fine. We weren’t playing in Chicago for another couple of days, so I’d have time to recover.

Slowly I skated around, seeming as though I was being wary of the fights. Which I was, but more so, all my concentration was on looking like nothing physically was wrong.

After what seemed like an eternity, I was off the rink and walking to the locker room. I got in just in time to get into a toilet stall, whip off my helmet, and vomit. No one else was around,thankfully. I wiped my mouth and breathed out the putrid smell. Washing my face and hands helped as well as a handy breath mint.

I was taking off my skates as the rest of the team started to file in. Everyone was complaining about how Chicago was out of line and how we’d destroy them in their own arena. My pack was the last to return with the coaches and a half dozen security guards. Ewan was yelling at the coach and told to go wait for him in his office. My cousin could be a hothead, but never like this.

Then the coach silenced us and chewed us out. He expected the officials to be on our side of it, but we could still suffer individual suspensions. Heading to Chicago, that was the last thing we needed. If we lost any of our first line, we were screwed.

Despite the fact we won the game and we were ahead two to one in the series, there was no celebration in the locker room. We showered and dressed and went out to answer questions from the press. We didn’t dare miss it considering we were already in trouble for the first time, and the whole team was under scrutiny for the big end of game fight.

Kane took most of the questions. He always knew how to handle the press and the best things to say. I answered a few questions, but since I had not gotten involved in any fight, I slipped away back to the locker room. After everything, all I wanted to do was cuddle with Kienna and let her light and warmth calm me.

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