Page 80 of Role Model

“Yeah!” Troy yelled, hammering the boards with his stick. “That’s how you fucking do it!”

The crowd, which was a little bigger than usual—possibly as a show of support for their hometown players managing to not die in a plane crash—was on their feet. It was a great start.

Later into the first period, Scott Hunter tried to tie the game with an incredible wrist shot that Troy was sure was going to go in, but Wyatt gloved it down.

Ilya burst out laughing. “Wow, Hunter. That sucks. That should have gone in, right?”

Troy bumped Wyatt’s blocker pad with his glove. “That was beautiful, Hazy.”

“I’m not sure how I did that,” Wyatt said.

“Because you’re awesome.”

Wyatt grinned at him from behind his goalie mask. “I almost forgot. Thanks for the reminder, Barrett.”

Troy smiled as he skated toward the face-off circle. It was nice to feel like he might be friends with Wyatt now.

Ilya grabbed his arm outside the circle. “We’re going to score on this play, okay?”

Troy laughed. “Sounds good. You got a plan?”

“Yes. Keep up with me.”

Troy shook his head, still grinning as he bent down across from Cale Wagner. “Hi again,” Troy said. “Wilson, right? Or Wagon? Sorry, I keep forgetting your name.”

“Why don’t you ask your mom?”

“Nah. There’s no way she’s heard of you.”

The puck dropped and Ilya knocked it over to Troy. “Let’s go!” Ilya yelled, and took off down the ice.

Troy had no problem keeping up, leaving Wagner in his dust. He made sure he entered the New York zone first, carrying the puck, then passed it to Ilya, who dropped it back to Bood while Ilya got himself past the Admirals defenseman. Bood passed to Troy, and Troy found Ilya in front of the net. The goaltender never had a chance.

The goal made it 2-0 for Ottawa. Troy jumped on top of Ilya against the boards, and Bood crushed up against both of them.

“Good job,” Ilya said, tapping each of them on the forehead with the front of his helmet. “Let’s do it again.”

“No way,” said Bood. “Next one’s mine.”

The next one, it turned out, came from Luca Haas in the second period. Unfortunately, it was after the Admirals had scored two goals to tie it up, but Haas’s goal gave Ottawa the lead again.

By the third period, things were pretty intense. The Admirals were desperate for a goal to save their pride, and the Centaurs were determined to keep them from getting it.

There was some shoving after Wyatt made an easy save midway through the third period. Tempers were high, and Ilya had, as usual, been antagonizing Scott Hunter all night.

“I’m going to fucking kill you, Rozanov,” Scott growled in Ilya’s face. Troy was sort of holding Scott’s arm, but it was mostly for show. Scott was roughly twice his size.

“You have been saying that for years,” Rozanov said with a big grin. “But I am still here.”

Scott turned away from him, briefly locking eyes with Troy, who let go of his arm immediately. Then Troy noticed Scott fighting a smile as he began to skate away.

“I think he likes you,” Troy told Ilya.

“Of course he does. I’m great.”

The score stayed at 3-2 for Ottawa for most of the third period. New York battled hard, hungry for the tying goal. But the Ottawa team worked together like they never had before, and kept their one-goal lead. It was stressful, trying to keep the Admirals from scoring, and the Ottawa bench was nervously watching the clock tick down the final minutes of play.

With three minutes left, getting close to the point where New York was probably going to pull their goalie for the extra attacker, Troy got a breakaway. Dykstra put the puck on his stick in the Ottawa zone and Troy took off. He was one of the fastest skaters in the league, and a skilled stick handler. He poked the puck between the legs of the New York defenseman in his way, picked it up on the other side, and then he was all alone, closing in on the goalie.

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