Chapter 6 - First Game and Press Conference

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3rd POV:

Tonight's game matches the second-seeded team USA against the tenth-seeded team Trinidad Tobago. This marks the first game for Team USA in this double-elimination winner-takes-all tournament.

Gordon Bombay seems to have his team well in control here. They are winning six to nothing.

Dwayne skates down the ice and passes the puck back between his legs to Charlie. Charlie skates down the ice more and passes it to Connie. Connie skates up to the goal and slaps the puck to the left side of the net and scores. Everyone on the bench stands up and cheers as the players on ice congratulate Connie. Cheers erupt in the stands as one of the players singles out Jesse on the bench

"Yeah, high-five some more. Man, my little brother could score on these guys!" a young teenager from the stands shouts out to Jesse.

"Go bother him then!" Jesse shoots back, clearly annoyed.

"Ha-ha. I ain't even got a little brother," the boy retorts laughing at his own joke.

"Jesse," Coach calls breaking Jesse away from his argument, "Quit gabbing and get out on the ice. Show me you want it son. Let's go!" Jesse secures his helmet and climbs over the wall and onto the ice.

"Yeah show me you want it, son," the young teen mocks the coach. Bombay stares back at the boy and the teen walks away with a sheepish look.

Y/N POV:

I watch for an open teammate and quickly pass the puck to Jesse. He takes it down the ice and right before the goal, he gets tripped and falls headfirst into the goal. He quickly gets up and I can tell he's mad. I skate over to him quickly and try to hold him back, but he ends up shoving the guy who tripped him, earning him time in the penalty box. As I get back into my position, I look to see Jesse trying to climb the sides of the box to hit some teenager.

I turn my attention back to the game as Dean and Fulton come off the bench. I skate behind the two as they shove down players left and right, passing the puck between them. I go up in front of them and check someone so they have a clear shot. Dean takes the shot and scores, we were up 8-0. We all came in to congratulate them and we dispersed. Dean and Fulton started looking at the crowd who were going crazy for the way they had shoved everyone.

Adam gets control over the puck but #9 of the Trinidad team steals the puck from him and makes his way down the ice. I try to skate after him but someone shoves me down. As I get back up I look up to see #9 scoring on Goldberg.

Adam gets the puck again but this time passes it to me. I skate down the ice and stop in front of two Trinidad players who are trying to hit me. They run into each other and fall over. I skate around them and circle them once more looking for an open teammate to pass to. I look up to see Kenny open and cleanly pass to him. He takes the puck and skates behind the net. He ducks in between a Trinidad player's legs. He quickly stands back up and puts the puck in the close corner, scoring another goal for the team. After that coach calls a line change and I go sit on the bench with Kenny.

"Nice job," I tell Kenny as I take off my helmet.

"Thanks, you too," he compliments me back.

Pretty soon the game is over and the final score is 9-2. We all huddle on the ice as Coach gives us a little victory speech.

"Alright, way to go! That wasn't a game, it was a statement!" Coach tells us as well all skate apart and back to the locker rooms. We all get changed and meet Coach outside somewhere for a press conference. We change into our team USA tracksuits and baseball caps.

"Ladies and Gentleman, Team USA Hockey!" Mr. Tibbles introduces us as we stand up on a raised platform, with a podium and microphones in the middle. Everyone claps as Mr. Tibbles continues with his introduction.

"And the man chosen to lead them to the gold, Gordon Bombay," Mr. Tibbles says as we all clap for Coach. He continues talking but I can't hear him over the clapping. I see a big polar bear mascot skip over to us as it comes up onto the platform. We all pose with the bear as we get a million photos taken of us.

"Hiya everybody!" the bear says in some weird cartoon character voice, "Good to be here!"

"Great to see ya," Mr. Tibbles says shaking hands with the bear and sending him off. "Any questions now?" Mr. Tibbles asks as he points to some random lady with her hand up.

"Team USA, how does it feel competing on a national level here in Los Angeles?" a blonde lady asks as she stands up.

"We love it!" A few of us interrupted Coach, who just smiled at our enthusiasm.

"Coach Bombay, the Vikings from Iceland are the heavy favorite. Their coach has already guaranteed victory. How are you going to handle them?" another lady asks as she stands up.

"Uh, hard work. I think our team is ready to go up against the best in the world. We're not worried about them, Iceland may be tough but we're Team USA and we're going all the way," Coach answers. This response gets a lot of cheers and claps from the team and the audience. Mr. Tibbles comes back up to talk to Coach, leading him down the platform.

"Team USA is going down!" a deep voice exclaims from the side of reporters. I look up to see a man with slicked-back hair and a group of huge, bleached blondes.

"That's where you're going," the man continues. This immediately causes the team to go quiet as we shoot each other questioning looks. I for one am terrified considering those guys are more than twice my size.

"See you on the ice Bombay!" he says.

"That's Stansson, coach of the Iceland team," Mr. Tibbles informs Coach, "He's wound a little tight."

"Stansson, from the NHL? Wolf 'the dentist' Stansson is coaching? You didn't tell me that," Coach said as he began to walk away, most of the team joining him. I, however, stopped with Kenny behind Charlie and Julie.

"That guy's a dentist?" Kenny questions.

"That was his nickname," I tell him.

"He played one year of pro, knocked more teeth than goals," Charlie continues, "He even punched out his own coach!"

"I heard they ran him out the league and the country," Julie tells us as we all watch Stansson argue with some security officers. Julie and Connie walk away as Kenny and I stay behind a little bit.

"That's his team, those guys are huge!" Kenny exclaims.

"You're telling me," I say in fear as Kenny and I run after our teammates. 

 We take a bus back to our dorm rooms and the girls and I go shower. We decided in a bit we would head to the beach and invite the boys with us. I was super excited, I had never actually been to a beach before, there aren't all that many in Minnesota. And by "all that many" I meant there are zero.

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