Page 60 of Time to Shine

“Get it, Casey,” Landon said.

Casey did get it, but then he lost it, and suddenly Detroit had a breakaway. Landon watched the puck, watched the stick, watched the hands, watched the skates. The skater was coming in at an angle from the left, moving fast, and he didn’t have solid control of the puck.

Landon decided to take a risk.

Before he could second-guess himself, he gripped up on his stick, lunged forward and jabbed at the puck. If he missed, it would be an easy goal because he’d left the net wide open.

He didn’t miss. The wide blade of his stick made contact with the puck, pushing it away from the skater and back toward the blue line. The skater tripped over Landon’s sprawled body and slid toward the boards behind them. Landon scrambled to his feet because another Detroit player had snatched the puck and was about to shoot. Fortunately the shot was weak and Landon was able to trap the puck easily, causing play to stop.

He heard two things at once: the crowd going absolutely nuts cheering for him, and Casey screaming over it.

“Fuck yes, Stacks! Are you kidding me?” Casey bumped his chest against Landon’s arm. “Poke check king!”

“Did it look good?”

“It was fucking epic! Look.” He pointed up to the giant screen on the scoreboard. Landon flipped his mask up and watched the replay of himself attacking the puck like he was in a battle to the death with it.

It did look pretty awesome.

“Shit, that’s so hot,” Casey raved. “I wanna watch it forever.”

“You’ve got a face-off to get to.” Landon tried to sound stern, but he was smiling. And probably blushing, though he was already flushed from playing hockey so it hopefully wasn’t noticeable.

“I’m gonna watch that all night when we get home,” Casey said as he skated backward away from Landon. “All night.”

“Whatever. Score a goal or something.”

Landon was trying to be playful, but he really would like his team to score a goal. A little insurance for these last few minutes of game time would be nice.

Calgary didn’t score, though, and when there were about two minutes left in the game, Detroit pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. Now Landon had to keep track of six Detroit skaters, four of which were forwards, two of which were all-stars.

Landon’s teammates did a good job getting in Detroit’s way, blocking passing and shooting lanes. Ross MacIsaac had planted himself in front of the crease, and was making sure no one would be able to tip a puck in.

Detroit did get some good shots in, though. A fast wrister from the left that Landon was barely able to see, and when he couldn’t control the rebound, a quick shot came from the right. Ross got that one.

Unfortunately, when Ross tried to clear the puck, it was intercepted by a Detroit player, and Landon had to hope he shot it because he didn’t have time to look around at other possibilities.

He didn’t shoot it. He made a quick, clean pass to a Detroit sniper, who fired it toward the net. Landon wasn’t in position to stop it at all, but he made a desperate dive toward the puck and then watched with wonder as it bounced off the tip of his glove and out.

Lee got the puck and fired it toward the empty net at the opposite end of the ice. The crowd, already loud after Landon’s desperation save, absolutely lost their minds when the puck slid cleanly into the net.

Less than a minute later, the game was over, and the entire Calgary team was racing toward Landon to celebrate.

“Holy shit, kid,” Ross said. “That was big-time.”

His other teammates said similar things, between lots of whooping and cheering. Most of them hugged him or patted him in some way. And then Antton stopped in front of him, nodded once, and said, “Fucking right.”

Landon smiled so wide it made his cheeks ache. He was out of practice. “Fucking right,” he agreed, then accepted Antton’s quick hug.

When Casey got to him, he looked giddy. His eyes were huge and bright, and his dimples looked like craters. “I am so fucking proud of you, Stacks. That was... I don’t even know. I’m fucking speechless.”

Landon laughed. “That would be something.”

Then, Casey placed a hand on either side of Landon’s mask and kissed him.

Well, kissed the mask.

But in the chin area, in the vicinity of Landon’s mouth.

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