The Hockey Girl

Chapter 10

“They’re killing us Coach.” Alexei uttered as we took our seats on the players bench. The Monarchs weren’t exactly ‘killing us’ but man, did all of me ache something fierce.

“Bullshit Alexei. It’s the second intermission. You’re two goals behind and you have twenty minutes left on the clock. If you focus and play the way I know you can all play, you’ll win.” Coach encouraged.

“He’s right.” Nate said, breathing heavily. He, Elias, Riordan, Riaz, Alexei and Lucas had played a tough session and they all looked exhausted. I’d watched as they’d given it their all. They’d played hard. “If we go out strong in this next period, we can win. We just need three goals to win and two to draw. We’ve come back from worse than this.” The team nodded in agreement at Nate’s words.

“Alright, you five,” Coach Riviere said, referring to the boys who had just been on the ice, “take a breather, slug some water and be prepared in case we need you to substitute. Watch the action on the ice carefully. Look for weaknesses to exploit.” The boys nodded.

Coach looked around at his players before nodding in decision, “I want Kaleb as goaltender.” Kaleb inclined his head in acknowledgement. “I want Adam and Xavier in defence and Tai, Vasic and Alara on the ice. Skaters, you know what we need. You know the scores.”

“Alara, these guys proved that they don’t have any respect for you in the first period and that cost them two goals. They don’t seem to have learned from their error so I want you to use their idiocy against them, okay?” I nodded at Coach. “Tai, if you can assist Alara in that play you two practise together, it’ll be a guaranteed goal.” Tai inclined his head before turning to grin at me. We loved this play.

‘Vasic, you’re the only enforcer we’ll have on the ice so you need to be vigilant, alright?”

“Yes Coach.”

Coach Riviere hit each of our helmets before we exited the player’s bench and skated onto the ice.

“Eat those Monarchs for breakfast Wolves!” Riordan shouted from the bench and the team raised their heads and howled as if to support his statement. I turned to Vas and we both grinned at each other.

“Play a good period Kinkaid.” Vasic smiled.

“You too D’Angelo. Play hard.” I retorted.

“Hey! We exist too! What about your captain?” Tai questioned with Adam and Xavier flanking him. Kaleb had already skated out to our goals.

I watched as Adam and Vas shoved each other playfully before they all sobered up and skated out to centre ice for the face off. The third period was about to begin. Tai took his position in the face off and the four of us assumed ours.

Tai was facing off against an enforcer from the Frankston team. The guy was so massive that I struggled to believe he was a teenager… maybe he was held back?

When the buzzer sounded, all thoughts of anything bar the game flew from my mind. I was set on my task – score.

“Tai Russo, the captain of the Wolves has won the puck at centre ice folks. He skates with it and passes off to a flying D’Angelo! Look at that man go! He’s still in the neutral zone but not for long folks.”

I skated hard on the opposite side of the rink to Vas. I observed as he split their defence and passed the puck off to an awaiting Tai. Two more Monarchs skated at Vasic before he passed back to Vas once again.

“It seems that these Wolves have come back from intermission with a vengeance! The Monarchs have encroached on the Wolves’ territory and the Wolves certainly aren’t taking any prisoners!”