Page 170 of Goaltender Interference

It was the night before Thanksgiving, the crowd was drunk and fired up, and the Boston Harriers were on a hot streak.

They’d gone on a short road trip, then returned home to another win. So maybe it was only a three-game winning streak but it feltgood.

Coach Hoyt hadn’t had a whole lot to say about Jesse and Connor being together. He’d mostly warned Connor if he so much asthoughtabout taking a stupid penalty for someone interfering with Jesse, he was going to get bag skated until he puked.

Connor had looked alarmed, and so far, had been on his best behavior. Jesse wasn’t sure how longthatwould last but he supposed they’d have to wait and see.

The team seemed completely oblivious that anything was going on between them.

At this point, it was honestly funny.

Jesse could feel the energy of the home crowd singing in his veins when he skated to the bench during a TV time-out in the third period. His skin buzzed with the electricity from the game, from the crowd, from his playing.

No win was inevitable, but Jesse could feel this one coming in his bones.

Some nights were like that, luck on their side, refs calls going their way. The puck had seemed magnetized to Connor’s stick, sliding into Buffalo’s net like it was finding its way home.

Their D-corps hadn’t made stupid mistakes, hadn’t turned over any easy pucks, hadn’t allowed many odd-man rushes.

The few shots Jesse hadn’t easily blocked had gone wide, or pinged off his posts. The one he’d let in earlier in the game had been a fluke and Boston had responded with two goals after.

Currently, they were up 4-1 against Buffalo.

There was still time for Buffalo to fight back, but they were playing sluggishly, on their heels, their defense collapsing.

As the ice crew scraped up some of the loose snow with their shovels and someone fixed a divot in the ice near Jesse’s net, the team looked loose and relaxed, milling around on the bench or in front of it, laughing.

Music thumped through the speakers, a poppy club song that had the crowd singing along and clapping.

Jesse bopped along to it, wiggling a little because it felt good to move. He spotted a couple of people sitting behind the bench nudge each other, pointing at him, so he held his stick out horizontally in front of him while he did hip circles, playing it up.

On the bench, Connor rolled his eyes, looking at Jesse fondly, so he hammed it up even more, making his movements more and more exaggerated.

They were winning and he was feeling good, so why the fuck not?

Jesse had done this all the time as a kid and all through Juniors. He’d dialed it back after he signed with Toronto, not wanting his coaches to think he wasn’t taking the game seriously. Gilly, in particular, had hated it.

But fuck it.

He’d gotten away with a bit of dancing here before, so why not go all in and see what happened?

Jesse nodded at Arkady, who was suited up as backup, then tossed him his blocker. Kady caught it and did a little shimmy on the bench like he was imitating Jesse.

Jesse kicked his feet out a little, throwing in some old-school dance moves as he moved a little farther away from the bench. He waved his arms, doing a little twirl, then shimmied forward and back a few times.

At one point, he backed his ass up in front of Tanner, twerking the best he could with all his gear on while Tanner got into it too.

The noise from the crowd rose, people cheering and clapping when they caught on to what Jesse was doing. Buoyed by the attention, he kept going, hamming it up more and more as he threw in a few current moves he’d seen on social media lately.

Coach Hoyt looked up from his conference with the other coaches, shook his head, then returned to his conversation.

Behind his mask, Jesse grinned.See. Everyone loved him.

The ice was nearly clear, the song coming to a close, so Jesse dropped into the splits, arms in the air for his grand finale. The crowd roared and Jesse hyped them up further, with a raise-the-roof gesture, urging them on until the noise reached a fever-pitch.

One of the officials was starting to shoot Jesse dirty looks though so he got to his feet, threw out a few kisses to the crowd, then skated toward the bench. He snagged his blocker from Kady, who thumped him on the helmet, grinning.

“We do dance-off some time,” he shouted.

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