Meet Me at the Rink

Chapter 34

~ Austin ~

After our team dinner, we headed down to the dressing room to get started on warm-ups and gearing up for the game. "The girls seem excited for tonight's game." Alex says as he begins to tape his stick. "Yeah, they do and I'm happy they could make it." I reply pulling one of my socks up over my shin pad. "Hey man, I think I'm gonna ask Leah out after the game tonight." Alex says as I begin to put my skates on. I look over at him and smile. "Oh yeah? You're ready to make your move bro. You've got nothing to worry about." I reply.

** Warmups **

As we're skating around shooting pucks and stretching, I look into the crowd to try and find Ally and Leah. When I skate around the bend, I stop and hit the glass near the photographer's camera hole, scaring Ally and Leah who were looking down the ice. When they look over at me, I smile as Ally places her hand on the glass. "Dude, did you get Allison a Marlies jersey with your name and number on it?" Alex asks skating up next to me followed by Colton. "I did get her one and what she doesn't know about it, is that it's one of my game-worn jerseys from last season." I reply. "That's so cheesy dude!" Becker replies as Alex and I both look at him. "At least he's not giving his jersey away to a different girl every two months." Alex says as Colton rolls his eyes and skates away mumbling "Whatever."

Once warmups are done, we went back down to the dressing room while the Zamboni flooded the ice. "Alright boys!" Coach exclaims clapping his hands together. "Tonight we're going to work hard, play hard and do everything we can to keep the puck out of our zone. You see an open player... You stay on top of them! You get the puck and carry it up as far as you can into their zone. Now let's get out there and kick some ass!" Coach exclaims as he completes his speech and the room erupts in hoots and hollers. "Let's go boys!"

** Second Period **

We were leading 2-0 late in the second period, fighting every battle we were in, to gain puck possession. Alex scored the first goal at the start of the period and I scored the second one just a couple of minutes ago. "Up, up, up!" I shout to one of the defenders who knocked the puck off of the opponent's stick and was looking for a passing window when he looks up. He shoots the puck up as it lands on the blade of my stick. I race up centre ice as I hear the roaring of the crowd mixed in with players and coaches shouting.

"Shoot it Aus! Shoot!" Alex says as I quickly take a second to see if I have a passing opportunity or if I'm on my own. When I see Alex hop off the ice for a line change, I know I'm on my own as the opposing team races to try and catch up to me. The only thing left between me and a goal now is the goalie. I watch the goalie as I'm stick-handling the puck. "Top right corner!" I say to myself as I get closer and closer to the net.

I take the shot when I'm about three feet away from the net. Cling! It's in the back of the net, top right corner just like I said! The Marlies fans that came all the way to Montreal to cheer us on cheer as I make it a 3-0 game. "Yeah, buddy!" "Woo! Nice shot!" My teammates say as I make my way over to the bench for a shift change. Coach taps the top of my helmet and Alex gives me a fist bump. "Way to go my guy!" He says as I take my Gatorade bottle and squirt some into my mouth. "Thanks brother!" I reply after I place the bottle back on the bench.