Angels of Long Island | Mathew Barzal

~8~

LEXI'S POV

Friday night comes and I hop in my car and take the little hike to the Nassau Coliseum. I go to the will call booth and tell the girl on the opposite side of the window "I believe there are tickets in my name? Lexi Callahan." I say. "Yes ma'am, they're under Mr. Barzal. Here you go." She says, sliding my ticket and something else under her window. "Next please!" She calls and I move out of the way. I look at the ticket she handed me. I have a club level seat directly up from center ice. On the blue ticket is a nice picture of Mat. Under his picture is the seat information and the words "New York Islanders vs. Nashville Predators" I smile at Mat's picture and put it in my pocket until I need it. The other thing in my hand is a VIP pass almost, granting me all access in the arena "Excluding the New York Islanders dressing room." It reads. It's inside a plastic holder on the end of a lanyard. I put the lanyard around my neck and pull out my ticket again, getting in line to get scanned in. I show the man my ticket, he scans it and smiles. I put the ticket in my purse so I can keep it without it getting ruined. I take an escalator to the upper level where the club is and I stop by one of the specialty drink stands and grab a fruity alcoholic drink. Then I go to find my seat. I purposely got there a little late so that I wouldn't have to wait for the game to start for a long time by myself. As I'm sitting down in my seat, the announcer is going through the starting lineup. "At right wing, number 12, Josh Bailey." Everyone cheers. "At left wing, number 32, Ross Johnston." More cheering. "And at center, number 13, Mathew Barzal." The stadium cheers even louder. I stay seated and clap, feeling proud that that's who I came here to see. "And in goal, number 1, Thomas Greiss." The crowd cheers again. The national anthem plays and then the game starts.

After the second period, the score is 2-1, Islanders. Mathew hasn't scored. The third starts and the Preds score right off the bat. It's now 2-2. Tie game. My nerves are all over the place as the time continues to wind down. Mathew skates up the center and passes to number 18,his buddy Anthony Beauvillier. The puck gets stolen by a Predator and Mathew is there and shoves him up against the boards, lifting his body up and his stick from the puck. He takes the puck and whips his back to the player he just checked and backhands the puck towards the net. It looked like a hail mary attempt at a shot, trying to get rid of the puck before the other team got possession. The puck hit Rinne in the chest, bounced off him and fell in front of him, Mat is simultaneously booking it towards the net for the rebound and he taps it right through the legs of Rinne, who was still looking for the puck. The red goal light goes off behind the net and the arena cheers. Myself included. The score was now 3-2 thanks to Mat with 4:22 left in the period.

The last 4 and a half minutes pass and the Isles hold off the Predators long enough to win!

I let the arena clear out enough so I can walk down to the locker room. I stop and ask an usher how to get there, showing him my credential. He directs me to an elevator and tells me to tell the usher there where I'm going. The elevator takes me down to ice level and the security guard outside the hallway to the locker room stops me. I show him my pass and he let me through. I can see the door to the locker room down the hall a bit. Music is flowing out of it and I can hear guys yelling. Reporters go in and out constantly and after a while, the hallway calms down. I pull my phone out and shoot Sophia a text. "Isles win, Mat scored." After a minute, she responds with "Go 13! Tell him I say congrats, see you later!" I scroll through Instagram for a couple minutes before putting my phone back in my purse. Just then, Mat comes out of the locker room dressed in his suit he most likely came in. I smile when I see him. "Lexi" says. "Hi superstar!" I say, walking towards him as he walks towards me. When we reach each other, he wraps his around me in a hug. The hug lasts for a half a minute or so before he lets go and I say "Congrats on the goal and win from Sophia and I" He chuckles and says "Thanks. "You wanna get a drink or something?" "Sounds good." I say. I follow him out of the rink and out of the arena. He walks me to his car and he drives me back to my own car since it would've been a far walk. "Just follow me." He says. I nod and hop in my car. I follow Mat's black car out of the vicinity of the Coliseum and a few minutes later, he's pulling into a small parking lot near a club that was called Aura. I didn't think I was necessarily dressed or ready for a nightclub but it was whatever because with Mat, who I'm sure wouldn't take me somewhere bad.