Love Game

Chapter Thirty-Six: One Thing At A Time

"Senators goal! Scored by number 95, Matt Duchene! Assisted by number 27, Mallory Hamilton and number 9, Bobby Ryan!" The Ottawa Senators public address announcer yells over the speakers.

We skate back towards the bench to get fist bumps from our teammates. We skate back to center ice and line up against my old line. I stand next to Gabe near the face-off circle. He taps me on the shin guard with his stick.

"Gee, I wonder where you learned that trick from," he laughs and rolls his eyes.

"Don't be butt hurt because you're losing to a girl," I look over at him and smirk. "I've knocked you on your ass before, I can do it again."

"Is that a challenge?" He raises his eyebrow at me and scans his eyes up and down.

The puck drops and we're off again. The Avalanche win the face-off and bring it into our defensive zone. MacKinnon passes the puck to Gabe and I skate towards him, trying to poke the puck away from his stick. He passes the puck in between his legs back over to MacKinnon.

"Shit!" I mumble as I still try to guard Gabe as he puts himself in front of the net.

I push Gabe in the back with my stick, barely making him budge. I forgot how big and strong he is. MacKinnon passes it down to Erik Johnson on the blue line. He slaps the puck and the reflection hits Gabe's stick and goes in.

I throw back my head and groan as I see my former teammates celebrate in front of me. I skate back to the bench with my line mates and sit down, watching Gabe receive high fives from my former team.

"And that's how it's done," he taunts me as he skates by the Senators bench. "Get your wallet ready! I'm an expensive date!"

I roll my eyes at him and I spray my face off with my water bottle. The game was now tied at 1-1 with 5 minutes left in the third. This was a fun, hard fought game by both teams. Whoever loses this game will be out for blood when we play in Denver again next month.

The clock winds down and suddenly we are heading to overtime. Overtime always makes me so nervous. Just one slip up and you cost your team the game.

We skate out onto the ice against Gabe's line yet again. Matt wins the face-off and we skate into the Avalanche zone. Matt passes it to Bobby and he shoots it, hitting the post and causing the crowd to groan. Gabe guards me as him and I fight in the corner for the puck. He pins me up against the glass as his skate and mine get tangled. The puck breaks free as Matt skates by and shoots it on the net. Missed again.

Gabe and I untangle from each other and I place myself in front of the net. Bobby picks up the puck and shoots it, reflecting off the goaltenders pad. I get my stick on it and I backhand the puck into the back of the net.

The team comes out and jumps on top of me as I see the Avs skate their way back to the bench and down the tunnel. The crowd is going absolutely crazy. We raise our sticks and salute the crowd before skating towards our tunnel.

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I walk out of the locker room in my black dress, pulling my hair into a high curly ponytail. The team was on fire tonight after our win. They all wanted to go out and celebrate, but I had other plans.

I start to make my way towards the visiting locker room, hearing voices behind the doors. One by one, I see my old teammates make their way out of the locker room. Nathan runs up and hugs me.

"Have fun on your date!" He squeezes me and lifts me in the air.

"It's not a date!" I smack his arm. "Wait, is it?"

"He won't shut up about it," Nathan replies and puts me back on the ground. "Love the new look by the way."

"Thanks, Nate. I'll see you next month!" I wave at him as he leaves with the rest of the team.