Mighty USA Ducks

Twenty-Eight

We all stood in the locker, sweating, and tired. But I stood there with my bottle in hand. I had refilled it with coffee. Might as well drink this, I haven't eaten all day it's my 'ritual' I guess you could say. Coach walks in a little upset and I could tell, but no one else saw it. "Enjoy that?" He asked them. "Yeah" Came from everyone else and I didn't say anything, neither did Charlie or Miss MacKay. I guess they understood that at this point we were going no where."Well so did they... They're three points ahead and we're one lost away from defeat,"

"At we have pride," Jesse says.

"Jesse, that isn't pride. Sure when Dwayne roped that big oaf part of me cheered. And I know how you all feel. I wanted to cream the jerk that busted my knee. But overtime it will heal and if I sink down to their level than I lost more than my knee." he was exactly right now that he's been coaching for the past four years, he's been might fine with those speaches of encouragement.

He sighs as we all sit or stand there listening. I got a couple glances and smiles from Adam, so I smiled back. I wasn't mad at him about the bro code, just disapointed they even came up with that in the first place. "We're not goons, we're not bullies, no matter what people say or do, we have to be ourselves. You," He points to Dean. "Who are you?"

"Dean Portman,"

"From where?"

"Chicago, Illionois,"

"You?" He points to Russ next. And he responds, "Russ Tyler, South Central, Los Angeles,"

Soon everyone went around saying who they were and where they're from. It was cool to hear about where everyone came from. Deluth, MN. Philly, Pensylvania, LA, Florida, San Fransico, Maine, and many more from Minnesota. It was amazing to hear that from everyone else, including myself. "We're Team USA gathered from all across America, and we're gonna stick together because we are Ducks and ducks fly together!"

"Just because the wind blows high and the sky is black..." Miss MacKay said, following Coach's lead.

"Ducks fly together!" We all call and then Dwayne something like that as well that no one understood and we all cheered anyway.

"And when everyone says it can't be done, Ducks fly togehter. Old Ducks and New Ducks must stick together under a new banner," he says.

Eventually after that motivational speach, we all headed out of the locker room wearing brand new uniforms. White shirts with the Duck logo, purple hockey pants with the green and white strip down the side. Iceland was at their bench and we all entered the rink once again, the crowd cheering for us still and we all went to our bench. We all did our cheer together. "Quack, quack, quack... Gooo Ducks!"

We were all pumped up now and ready to go. For some reason the game always seems faster when you're playing and the time flies. It's cool, but seems like you're only playing for ten minutes. The crowd started singing We Will Quack You by Queen. Well, the actual bersion is We Will Rock You. But they changed it up for us, I guess.

Averman went to face off and unexpectidely he shoves Iceland to the ground and passes the puck out to Portman, who passes it to Fulton, who passes it to Guy, and he passes it to Connie and she shoots and scores that quickly. We all cheered as we were down by two points now. I was litterally hanging on to Adam's jersey as I was yelling and hollering. He laughed and shoved me playfully away from him.

Iceland shot at our net, Goldberg dived and saved the goal. Averman took the puck and turned, bt iceland stole the puck and no one else was around. They scored that easily, but afterwards was our comeback. We all went to  quickly switch off and Charlie was maing up some plan that didn't seem to make sense at all but he said it would work for sure. We watched and all nodded as he spoke to us, than winked at me as he explained and then looked back down. I didn't respond to him though. I was still all mixed up about things.

Luis, Dwayne, Adam, Goldberg, Guy, and I all got on the ice, nodding at each other getting ready for the plan as the Iceland coach yelled at his players to do somehting. I didn't understand, but then again no one did other than themselves. We did face off and lost, but it was all right, that was our intention. I skated quickly up to Iceland, ducking as I was close to the boards and about to hit with a high stick. I went up behind Iceland stole the puck, quickly turning and skaitng backwards as I send the puck to Dwayne.

He picks the puck up and sends it down the ice to Adam. Iceland quickly reacts and Adam goes as fast as he could do the ice. He got tripped and the puck was in front of him, he quickly reacted as well hit the puck with his stick, making a goal. The points were 3-5 now.

We all started up again and were shoving people all over the place. I had the puck now and sent it to LUis. He made a break away as I pushed a couple guys and watched him. He went all the way up to the net and stopped, shaving a load of ice. He was so proud, "Shoot!" We all yelledfor him. He shot the puck between the goalie's legs and scored. 4-5 now! He rounded the net afterwards and looked at me. I nodded approving him of his excellance and he smiled, as did I.

Coach took my off for now and wanted Russ to attempt to make his Knuckle puck shot for us and for USA. He went on the ice but was getting shoved over and over again by Iceland because they knew what he was able to do. Soon, he and Goldberg switched and when they did, Russ quickly took his helmet off and did the knucklepuck, shooting and scoring just as the time went out ending the game.

"And now the game goes over into a five goal shoot out. The team with the most shots withing five tries wins!" The announcer yelled. We all exited and took our seat cheering as Iceland was sobbing and was upset. Their coach observed us all as we got off the ice.

Iceland was first in the net and Jesse went out first for us. He passed it between himself and quickly made a goal. One nothing now. Next was Goldberg net and Iceland was shooting. They also scored and next for us was is Dwayne and he does his puck handling and it got saved by Iceland, but it was all right. One-one. We're down by two and they're down by one.

Iceland was up next again. I waited impatiently watching at the far end of the bench by the door. Iceland had a beautiful save by Goldberg.Next was Fulton, he shot from outside of the Goalie's crease, but hits the guy in the head, scoring. Two-one, us. We had three players down and they had two now.

Iceland goes and shoots from center now, and scoring. Iceland with two and us with two. I was our fort player to go while Iceland had two more to go. It was my turn now. I didn't think I'd be going because this was someone else's time to shine, not mine. I could shoot how ever I wanted. But as I exited the Ice, Coach called me over and set his hand on my shoulder. "I know you can do anything, but your strentgh is speed and tactic. Do so and go top right corner, not the glove side," I nod and he pats my back as I take a deep breath and head to center.

I stop there and wait. When he drops my puck I go up to the net quickly, passing the puck between myself and at last minute I stopped right in front of him shaving the ice. Faking a right towards the glove and he fell for it and I shot at the right and scored top corner! I was so proud of msyelf. I skated quickly back to the others and cheered with them while my dad smiled and nodded. Maybe I did live up to his legend and he finally realised it.

We were at three-two us. We had just Adam left and Iceland had two more shots to win. Iceland scored and shot, making it thred-three and tied again. Now it was Adam's turn. I had whispered something to him before he left and he had enough confidence to know he could do it. He was our last shot and we needed his winning shot. He stood at center and when the puck dropped, he kicked the puck with his skate, passes between himself and then stops and shots. Simple and quick, but amazing. We had four and they had three now.

Coach switched Goldberg out for JUlie. She went net and was told how Stahl shot. She was ready and when Gunnar was too, he went and kicked the puck. Did his triple deke and shot glove side speedily. We all were quiet, the crowd, and both teams. Julie stands up from when she had fallen to the ground making her saved goal or not. She had dropped the puck and we had won.

We all jumped the boards and all skated over to Julie cheering. She fell, but laughed with us and I stopped as I stood next to the others. All our gloves and helmets were on the ground as we cheered. This reminded me of back when I played for the Ducks at my second game with them. Charlie was talking to GUnnar and came back with a smile. I turned aorund and had hugged Adam and he had lifted me up, hugging me back tightly.

Adam then had the flag and handed it off the Charlie. We all did a victory lap around the ice as we cheered and won the Junior Goodwill Games.