Page 54 of Scoring Position

One second the puck hit Nico’s tape. The next it was in the back of the net.

“Using your ass like that is cheating,” Ryan chirped as Grange bumped helmets with Nico. The guys on the sidelines were clattering their sticks on the ice.

Phil blew the whistle. “PP, nice job. PK, don’t let them get away with it again. Reset, let’s go again, come on.”

Pregame skate the next day went the same way, though Vorhees had returned to glower and insult them. He didn’t mess with the composition of the PK or PP units, though, either because Special Teams was actually Phil’s purview or because the new lineups actually worked.

Nico wasn’t convinced it would make a difference in the game… until that night when they played St. Louis and Nico caught a stick to the face that split his bottom lip on the right side.

It stung more than anything, and it was going to make blowjobs interesting, but it drew blood, which meant the Fuel went on the power play. Nico stopped by the bench long enough for one of the trainers to glue the cut closed, then went back to the ice to take the faceoff.

The guy defending him had six inches and thirty pounds on Ryan.

Nico got around him no problem. He didn’t even have to look—he knew where Grange would send the pass. Deke left, deke right—no clean shot, but Grange was crashing the net. Nico fired off the pass and whooped as Grange tipped it in. He slammed into him with a manic grin. “Nice!”

Grange laughed. “All right, kid! Why didn’t we try this years ago?”

Because Vorhees sucked and Nico thought Grange hated him? But whatever. That was the past. This was now. They were up 1–0, and anything could happen.

Anythingdidhappen. Nico tallied a goal in the second, a slick backhand off a blistering pass from Misha. St. Louis battled back to tie it, but then in the third, during a nail-biter penalty kill, Ryan knocked the puck off an opponent’s stick and right onto Chenner’s.

Nico saw the blind panic in the kid’s face, but only for a fraction of a second. He booked it up the ice, but there was no one but the goaltender between him and the net.

All the breakaway drills finally paid off. Nico could hear Ryan shouting even over the goal horn.

Despite increased pressure from a determined St. Louis team, the Fuel held their lead until late in the third, when a turnover by a rookie defenseman ended with the puck in their net.

Nico was frustrated and disappointed, but he couldn’t blame the defenseman either. It wasn’t his fault he’d been called up to the NHL before he was ready. The Fuel’s defensive corps was basically Misha and a bunch of cardboard cut-outs.

Okay, that was mean. They were doing their best. But between bad coaching and not being ready, their best wasn’t very good.

Nico was chewing his mouth guard in irritation when Vorhees challenged the goal for goaltender interference.

Nico practically bit through the plastic. “What?”

Beside him on the bench, Lefty made a disbelieving sound. Sure, it would be nice if the goal got overturned, but there was plainlyzerointerference on the play. They were going to get a penalty for no reason. “Does hewantus to lose?”

Sure enough, when the officials reviewed the goal, the call on the ice stood, and the Fuel got slapped with a two-minute penalty for Vorhees being an idiot. Worse, Ryan, one of their best penalty killers, had to serve it.

Nico could read the murder in his eyes from across the ice. He counted it as a miracle when the PK and Greenie kept the puck out of their net for the final two minutes of the game.

But he wasn’t taking any chances with overtime. The second he got the nod, he was off like a shot. He had to throw his weight around to wrestle the puck from St. Louis’s captain, but what did Nico eat six thousand calories a day for if not to use it?

The nice thing about three-on-three was there was so much open ice. A few hard strides and Nico was clear of defenders.

The goaltender blocked his first shot with a pad, which only annoyed Nico. He picked up the rebound and lifted it over his shoulder.There.

God, he wanted a nap.

Despite the win, in the locker room, Coach chewed them out for… something. Not manipulating the video to show nonexistent goaltender interference, perhaps. Nico didn’t pay attention, too tired of the refrain to care. Vorhees was determined to be displeased, and nothing Nico did would fix that.

Felicia sent him out to talk to the press. Nico did his best to find a media-acceptable way to say, “I just wanted the game over, man.”

At least he got to go home with Ryan.

THE WEEKSbefore Christmas went by way too quickly. With the Kirschbaums’ arrival on the twenty-third looming, Ryan wanted the time to drag. Unfortunately the old adage of time flying when you’re having fun also held true for having hot sex and winning hockey games.

Nico went on a hot streak and took the team with him. As they approached the three-day break, their win percentage in December just tipped over fifty.

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