Chapter 29

I had set my alarm for five so I could get up and study a bit before practice. I had studied a lot on the weekend so it was just to refresh myself on the material. I read through everything and did a couple of the harder questions from the assignments and textbook before heading out for Monday morning practice. It was still early so I skated a bit before setting up Patrick and shooting a while before everyone else came out. I skated by Frank and mentioned to him that I had to leave a bit early today and Thursday for tests and he was ok with it.

John let me know he was out for at least a week while his sprained ankle healed. Don would be my partner for this week but we were getting Steve Mason back so Don and I would be the third pairing. Fred let us know all about the Western Michigan Broncos and the split location games. He ran down the injuries and sickness substitutions and then told us we would be playing our game against them, and not conforming to what they did. We would be aggressive, physical and fast.

Practice was pretty mellow, all things considered, practicing special teams and then scrimmaging until they let us go early. I raced through my shower and then got to class. It was early when I sat down beside Steph in the hall outside the classroom.

"Hey Princess, all ready for this?" I asked.

"I don't know Mikey, I studied a lot this weekend but this stuff doesn't come easy to me," Steph replied. "I'm sure you're all prepared."

"I had lots of time to study on the trip so I'm as prepared as I can be," I agreed. "It doesn't matter though if he throws in a few tricky questions we haven't seen before."

The class before us let out and we grabbed our seats and got ready. The professor and his teaching assistant followed shortly after and started handing out the exams. The professor said his spiel and then gave the ok to begin the exam. The first few pages were fairly easy questions, almost straight from the assignments and textbook. The final two pages were what separated the men and women from the boys and girls. You had to apply everything you learned and adapt it to solve the questions on those two pages. I got through the first of the two pages quickly and then bogged down on the final question. I caught on to what he wanted with five minutes left and rushed to finish the solution before time was up. I wrote the last line as he came up to our row to collect our papers.

"Wow, that last question was tough," I commented to the professor as I handed it to him.

"You liked that one did you?" the professor said with a grin.

"I wouldn't say I liked it, but it was a challenge," I admitted.

He moved over to get Stephanie's paper and said "Sorry Miss Merks, it's time."

She sighed and closed her booklet, checked that she had her name on it and handed it over.

"That's it, I'm going home to be a grocery clerk," she said in disgust.

The professor and I both laughed at her.

"I'm sure you did fine Miss Merks," he assured her. "You probably did much better than you think."

"I think I failed miserably, so I hope I did better than that!" she said.

"You probably aced it just like last test Steph," I told her. "You probably got all the easy questions and just had problems with the last two pages right?"

"Yeah, those killed me," she admitted.

"Well, you got at least a seventy five then, the last two pages were only worth twenty five percent," I said. "Don't sweat it."

We packed up and left the room. I told her I would see her in an hour and took off for creative writing. The professor droned on about character development for the whole hour, citing examples from obscure literary works I had never heard of. I was happy when she let us out a bit early. I met up with Steph in the cafeteria and Lisa joined us a couple minutes later.

"Hey Lisa, have a good weekend?" I asked.

"Not too bad, I stayed here for the weekend and got some studying done for midterms," she answered. "You had your usual stellar weekend, even though the team didn't do well on Friday night."

"We all played poorly Friday night, even me, but we all made up for it on Saturday," I admitted. "We had a few guys out for the flu and John went down early with a sprained ankle, so we played with only five defencemen."

"Well you did well to win one then," Lisa admitted. "So, how did your first exam go?"

"It was tough, but I think I did ok," I told her. "Steph isn't so confident, but I think she did better than what she thinks she did."

"Ha! I'll be a clerk at Blockbusters before the week is out I'm sure," Steph said in disgust.

Lisa and I both laughed before Lisa said "Steph, I'm sure you did fine, you're too smart to mess up too badly."

Steph just grimaced and continued eating. Lisa and I joined her in finishing our lunches while I wondered how to break the news about the twins coming on the weekend. I wanted to be up front with Lisa so she wasn't expecting too much from me. I just decided to come clean and hope for the best.

"I got some news that you're not going to like, but I don't want to hide anything from you," I started, looking at Lisa.

"Oh, that doesn't sound good, does it Steph?" she said, looking over at Stephanie. "If I'm not going to like it, it probably concerns your ex-girlfriend right?"

"Yes, the twins are back in town this weekend, coming in sometime Saturday and flying back Monday morning," I told her. "We need to talk about some things. I'm not sure what will happen, but I wanted you to know what was going on."

"Well, I guess I appreciate you being up front with me, and I know you've been honest with me from the get go, but I can't help being disappointed," Lisa responded. "I knew you weren't over Vicky yet and were keeping our relationship platonic while you waited for her. At least you didn't take advantage of me like some guys would have and then throw me away when she came back."

"I'm not sure what it is they want to talk about, so it could be nothing," I said. "That being said, I don't think it's fair to you to have to put up with something like this. You deserve someone who can devote one hundred percent of his focus on you and I sure am not that guy. Even if the twins were out of the picture, I'm not good relationship material, what with school and hockey taking up so much of my time all year. Lisa, I like you as a friend, but maybe you should look for someone else for a boyfriend."

Lisa looked at me for a bit and then glanced at Stephanie, who just shrugged.

"You make some good points Mike," she finally responded. "I can see that my chances for a romantic relationship are pretty slim right now even without my dad's fiasco earlier. I would still like to be your friend and see what happens with you and the twins before giving up on something more. I hope I can still have lunch with two sometimes and do other platonic things once and a while."

"I don't have a problem with that, though Vicky might be a tad jealous of you too," I said. "I'll see what happens Sunday and let you know what's up Monday."

"Ok, good enough for me," she replied.

We finished up our lunches and then did some studying before heading out to our next classes. Algebra class consisted of a quick review for the exam and then some new work. I met Steph after class and we studied for Thursday's computer programming exam. I left her when it was time to go to practice and walked to the arena. Practice was more intense than this morning's as we had Daniel, Chris and Mark back from the flu. They weren't one hundred percent so all three goalies were dressed and the extra players from last week's games spelling the others off.

After practice, I had supper in the cafeteria and then headed home to study for algebra. I got in a couple of hours of that in and then did some more writing before hitting the hay.

Tuesday was more hockey practice and studying with Steph and alone. Nothing exciting but I did get a good workout as well.

Wednesday was a repeat of Monday except the exam came in the afternoon in algebra. It was more difficult than the first exam but I felt pretty confident in most of my answers. I relaxed a bit after the exam and then went to afternoon practice.

Cynthia met me in the cafeteria after supper and she went over the chapters I had made changes on and then the new ones. She marked up the obvious grammatical and spelling mistakes while she did the first read which allowed me to get started on those corrections while she did the second read for the more structural and technical deficiencies. I saved those corrections to do later in the week and headed home after I dropped her off at her dorm. I studied for tomorrow's computer programming exam for a couple of hours and then called it a day, falling asleep dreaming of Vicky and Becky with me.

Thursday morning I got up early again to study before driving over to the arena. Mark was there early to get in some extra shooting practice so I obliged him for about twenty minutes, peppering him with shots from all over the zone. We both took a break when the rest of the guys came out, with Bob taking over in net.

"So, are you going to play tomorrow night?" I asked Mark.

"I'm going to dress and either be the starter or back-up depending on how I feel," he replied. "I'm still not one hundred percent but I'm feeling better every day."

"That's great news," I replied. "We sure need you out there."

The coaches came out and started the practice, working on a high tempo offence with fast break-outs from our zone. It demanded sharp accurate passing from the defence, so I was kept busy for a while. We scrimmaged afterwards and I left a bit early for the showers so I could get to my exam. I quickly showered and got dressed before heading to the main campus, arriving just as the class before us let out.

"Hey Steph, are you feeling better about this one?" I asked.

"I little bit, programming is easier than set theory in Logics, that's for sure," she answered as we walked up to get to our seats.

"You would think so," I agreed. "I'll be glad when this is over; it's been a rough couple of weeks."

"Tell me about it! At least we don't have a programming assignment this week," she responded with relief. "I'm going home this afternoon and going out with Ryan tonight to a party."

"Good for you, have fun but be careful," I said as the professor came in the room.

"Thanks, we will have fun but we're very careful about the drinking and driving thing, especially since we're not twenty one yet!" she replied with a grin.

"That's a relief! I don't have to worry about you getting in an accident Princess," I said as we got ready for the test.

"Aw, that's sweet that you worry about me Mikey," she said with a smile.

"Of course I do Princess," I replied, pausing for a second before continuing with a straight face. "Who else can I get notes from if I'm away?"

"Oh you, you big goofball," she said, giving me a shove. "Wait till I tell Vicky about that comment!"

"Are you going to talk to her this weekend when she's here?" I asked.

"She won't be here too long, I'll just email her and maybe text or call her on Sunday," she said. "She'll be busy with some goofball most of Sunday so I'll have to see her next time."

The professor handed us the test booklets and we got ready to write the exam. After he told us to start, we opened up the booklets and began the exam. Like most exams, the first few questions were pretty easy and the next couple were right from the assignments or from class. One was almost identical to a question from the textbook and then the rest were the tough ones, meant to see if you really understood the work.

I raced through the first few pages and then spent the rest of the time on the harder questions, finishing up with ten minutes to spare. I used that time to review the test and then handed it in when the professor came to collect them. Steph was finished as well, so we walked out together.

"That wasn't as difficult as it could have been," she remarked as we left the classroom.

"I agree, it seemed a bit easier than it should have been," I agreed. "Either we really know this stuff or he's getting soft on us."

"Well, I'm glad it's over anyway," she said. "You have a good weekend Mikey; play well and good luck with the twins. I hope you three can work something out to stay together, you are good for each other."

"Thanks Steph, I hope so too," I replied. "You have a good weekend too."

"I will," she said with a smile. "See ya on Monday, if you can walk after they get through with you!"

She walked away giggling as I stared at her. She turned around and saw me looking and grinned as she gave me a little ass wiggle. I laughed and waved before turning away and headed back to the arena.

I went and had a good work-out where I upped my reps again. I would need to talk to Chris next week about increasing the weight again as it was getting too easy to do three sets of twenty reps. I had a shower and then had lunch in the cafeteria, for once not studying or doing an assignment. I had a creative writing assignment that I would do between practices and then just had to work on the novella. The classes with exams this week did not have an assignment due on Monday or Tuesday.

I joined the other rookies for practice at one and Frank and Sam had us doing drills for a while and then practicing some of our plays. We even did special teams practicing before a long scrimmage. When we were done, I showered again and then got a snack at the cafeteria and then worked on the writing assignment. When it was done, I just leaned back against the wall and snoozed until afternoon practice.

I was jolted awake when someone sat down across from me. I opened my eyes to see John grinning at me, with Amanda by his side with a smile on her face.

"Hey guys, nice to see you two," I said. "Sorry, you're still stuck with this old geezer Amanda, you deserve better."

"I know, Gramps here has been a royal pain in the ass this week with his ankle," she responded. "I should probably get out before he starts getting more decrepit."

"Hey, I'm only a month older than you!" John exclaimed to Amanda as I laughed.

"Older is older, let's not quibble on how much," Amanda replied haughtily. "I think I need a new young stud, like Mike here. What are you, eighteen?"

"That's correct Amanda, and normally I wouldn't dream of going out with an older woman, but the twins have taught me the value of experience," I said with a grin.

"Well, I hope they've taught you well Michael, I'm not in the mood to teach someone how to treat a woman correctly," she said with a grin. "Speaking of the twins, I hear you have visitors coming this weekend. They mentioned something about a hussy?"

"Yes, the twins are flying in sometime Saturday," I agreed.

"What's this about a hussy?" John asked.

"I think they don't like the fact that Lisa Peterson is interested in me," I told them, "Even though they did in fact break up with me."

"Lisa Peterson? Wow, you certainly get all the beautiful girls don't you?" Amanda asked, looking impressed. "Beautiful and very rich, I might add."

"I'm keeping things strictly platonic, we have to get to know one another first before anything can go further," I responded. "Now with the twins maybe back in the picture, who knows what's going to happen."

"Poor Mikey, being chased by beautiful women is such a hardship," Amanda fake pouted.

"It can be, let me tell you!" I retorted. "Anyway, how did you know they're coming into town?"

"Vicky and I keep in touch via email and other means," Amanda replied. "Obviously we don't talk nearly enough as she knew about this hussy and I didn't. John didn't tell me about her either."

"Hey, I didn't know anything about her," John protested. "Mike isn't exactly a social butterfly you know."

"On that note, it's time for practice," I said, getting up and gathering up my books. "It was nice to see you again Amanda."

"Likewise Michael, remember to look me up if the twins and the hussy don't work out," she said with a grin. "Gramps here is getting cranky in his old age."

I laughed and walked away, while John started tickling her for her verbal pranks. The locker room was filling up when I got in and I said hi to some of the guys as I walked over to my spot. I quickly got changed and headed out to the ice and warmed up. Practice was geared to defence and special teams this afternoon and they kept us a little later than usual. I grabbed some supper in the cafeteria and then drove home. I did a good cleaning on the apartment and got caught up on laundry as well, just in case Vicky and Becky came over. I fell asleep after midnight, exhausted from all of the hockey, the cleaning and the stress of all the exams the past week.

Friday's practice was spent just tweaking all facets of the game, offensive, defensive and special teams, before having a scrimmage. After cleaning up I had the day off until team supper at four thirty. I went to the mall to get some clothes as I had out grown a lot of them. After stopping for some groceries, I went back to the apartment and put them away before cutting the tags off the clothes and washing them.

After lunch, I sat down and checked my email for a message from Vicky. Evidently, she didn't get my email before heading to the Caribbean, so I would have to play it by ear on when they were coming into town. I wrote a couple more chapters of the novella before lying down for a nap, setting the alarm for four.

Waking up with the alarm blaring, I got up feeling worse than when I fell asleep. I cleaned up, grabbed my suit in its bag, and headed out to the arena for supper. The supper was chicken with pasta and was pretty tasty, good enough for a second helping if I wasn't playing in a couple of hours. I resisted the temptation and headed to the locker room to get changed. We had our turn at a warm-up skate, doing the usual drills and then trooped back to the locker room to wait for the start of the game.

Fred had a few things to say so he stood up and we quieted down to listen.

"Ok men, we've practiced our game plan enough this week that we should very familiar with how we plan to play this game," he started. "I want to see some energy and physical play out there to disrupt their zone trap and defensive style. On defence, I want the centre and opposite winger to look to break out any time we get the puck in our zone, while the other winger stays in as an outlet pass on the boards in case the stretch pass is blocked. Are there any questions?"

There were none so we sat for a bit longer and then headed out to the ice. Don and I were third pair so we sat on the bench for the start of the period. The first line and first defensive pair went out and won the draw. Steve moved it up past centre ice and dumped it into the corner, where Daniel and Gary gave chase. Daniel hit their defenceman as he picked up the puck, while Gary went after the puck itself, wheeling and passing it to Chris in front of the net. Chris one timed it towards the net but the goalie saw the play develop and was square to Chris as he shot and stopped the puck with his chest and smothered it for a face-off.

The next few shifts were similar; we would get the puck in their zone and get a good scoring chance, but their goalie would stop everything. Finally, one of our rookie fourth line players, Alex Trammel, got too aggressive with a check and was sent to the penalty box for two minutes. The Broncos set up on the perimeter of our penalty killing passive box and moved the puck around. They were methodical in their play, making our penalty killers move around while they hardly expended any energy. They kept the puck for over a minute, passing it around or stick handling with it to set up a play. As the penalty killers got tired, they passed it down low, setting up a mismatch. Albert went down to cover the puck holder, leaving two forwards for Steve to cover. The Bronco centre passed it to the open one who one timed it past Mark to open the scoring. A big groan erupted from the crowd.

The first period continued with the Broncos playing their reactive offence, patiently waiting for us to make a mistake. We carried the play to them and had a few more scoring opportunities, including me hitting the post and the crossbar on two separate shots. Their goalie stopped everything and the period ended with the score zero to one, with the shot total fourteen to four in our favour.

Fred got up on a bench as soon as we all got settled and started to speak "Ok, we're playing great, getting lots of chances, but they have the only goal. It's not time to panic yet; we'll stay with our game plan. The only alteration is to get some more traffic in front of their goalie so we don't make it too easy for him. If he sees the shot he'll probably save it. So, let's try more low point shots with one or two people in front of him and see how he does."

So that's what we did in the second period, with Fred moving Don and I to first pair to get more shooting from me apparently. On my second shift with the fourth line, Sergio passed the puck back to me to one-time it low for the far corner. Bobby Vickers was screening the goalie, along with two of their defencemen, so the goalie never saw the puck. It hit someone's stick and deflected past the goalie, tying the score. The PA came on and gave the goal to Bobby with an assist to me and Sergio.

The period ended with another lopsided amount in shots for us, now thirty three to ten, but the score remained tied after two periods. Fred just told us in the intermission to just keep doing what we were doing; hopefully another one would get by their goalie.

The third period was similar to the previous two, with the play mostly in their zone. Don and I tried our fake dump in play, with Don getting the pass. He got past the forward and had a two on one with Gary against a defenceman. He drew the defenceman over and then passed it to Gary, who re-directed to the open side of the net. The goalie did the splits and stopped the puck, which slid to the corner harmlessly.

We were peppering him with shots from all sides, but he kept the puck out of the net. With about five minutes to go, one of their forwards tipped a pass intended for Albert at the point and the puck got out into the centre ice. Their forward skated past Albert and was on a breakaway, with Steve Mason chasing him from the other point. Steve was unable to catch up with him and the Bronco deked out Mark and put it high in the net for the go ahead goal.

Fred put out the first line along with Don and me for the face-off and we were quickly in their zone. Don wired a pass over to me and I shot high this time. The players in front dodged out of the way but the goalie couldn't react in time, just catching sight of the puck at the last minute. He was in a butterfly position, meaning he was on his knees with his legs spread out to cover most of the bottom of the net. Unfortunately it put his head on the level of where the shot was and the puck hit him right in the face mask before deflecting to the corner. The goalie fell back and hit his head on the ice and lay still. The whistle blew and the trainers from both teams rushed out to attend to him. I skated close to see how he was and both sets of players already on the ice gathered around.

They eventually brought out a gurney and he was loaded on it and taken off the ice. Their back-up came on and replaced him. Frank motioned me over while he was getting ready.

"Mike, keep the shots high, let's see how the new guy, and his defence, react," he said.

"Alright, but I'm telling everyone it's your idea if someone else gets hurt," I said, only half kidding.

"Everyone has face masks on, as well as good equipment, so don't worry," he responded.

"It didn't help the first goalie," I replied as I skated away.

We lined up for a face-off in their zone and Gary won the puck back to Don. He faked a shot and passed it to me. I moved along the blueline until I was in the centre of the ice and shot it high at the stick corner. The players in front were ducking and moving to the side like a matador dodging a bull. The goalie got his blocker on it at the last second and deflected up into the mesh, stopping play again. The Broncos called time and we moved back to the bench to see what the coaches had for us.

"Mike, they're going to double team you or have someone well out to cover you," Fred said. "Pass it to Don for a shot if you're double teamed or bank it past the one defender to Chris or yourself. Everyone, keep up the pressure and the screens in front. You can also try something down low against the new goalie."

The horn sounded for the end of the time-out and I looked up to see four minutes left in regulation. Fred was right, as he usually was; the Broncos had two guys rushing out to me when Gary won the face-off. I had no time for a shot so I passed it to Don, who got the puck deep to Daniel. He worked it behind the net and passed it out front, as the two guys were still out at the blueline with me. Gary had his stick tied up by their defenceman and the puck dribbled out past him and the defence. I raced in to get a shot, as did both my defenders. We all collided and I took both of them down with me, while Don got to the puck. He shot it at the net but it was too high as he had to clear the bodies in front. I untangled from the two of them and got back on defence as they cleared the puck from their zone. Don and I changed up with Albert and Steve and sat on the bench with only three minutes to play.

The second line tried to put one past the new goalie but could not, so with only two minutes to play, Fred sent out the first line with Don and me to try again. We carried the puck back into their zone and before they could double team me I wired a high shot right at the goalie. He, like any sensible person, ducked and the puck just missed the crossbar and slammed into the Plexiglas, causing a large crack to form, stopping play when the ref spotted it. The crowd was buzzing and the Broncos looked at me like I had a third head.

We went back to the bench to rest with a minute and forty seconds left to go in the game when the Plexiglas was done being replaced.

"Ok, Mike, put it on net, high corners or low to be deflected," Frank told me. "Hopefully it will get through now."

"Alright, I'll do my best, but they will be covering me I'm sure," I replied.

"Pass it down low then, and we'll have numbers," Frank said. "We're going to pull Mark now, so we'll put the extra attacker on your side to run interference."

I nodded as I took a drink. The glass took another few minutes to fix and then we were back on, the first line, Don and I on defence with Henry from the second line as the extra attacker. Gary for once, didn't win the face-off but did tie up their centre so he couldn't get it back to his defence. There was a mad scramble for the puck in the face-off circle and it finally came free for Henry to scoop it up. He passed it back to Don who saw that I was blanketed and passed it down deep to Daniel. He passed it in front to Gary who shot the puck at their net. It bounced off his pads and he dove to cover it up as Chris crashed the net to get the rebound. The ref called the play dead and we got set for another face-off.

This time Gary won it back cleanly to me and I drove the puck on net as Henry and Daniel crashed the net. The puck made it through to be deflected by Henry, but the goalie made another fantastic save, pushing the puck to the corner. One of their defencemen lifted the puck high out of their zone towards our net. Don raced back and, when the puck missed the net and crossed the back line, iced the puck, and stopping play. Since it was icing the face-off moved back into the Broncos end again. I looked at the bench to see if they wanted us to change but Frank waved me to stay out. The clock showed thirty seconds left as we lined up for the face-off.

Gary lost the face-off and they shot the puck out of the zone high off the glass. I went back for the puck and passed it back up to Daniel waiting at their blueline. He brought it into the zone and passed it to Chris who one timed it on net. The goalie saved the shot and directed the rebound to the corner where their defenceman shot it down the ice and the time ran out before I could get back for it. The Broncos won the game two to one even though we had outshot them fifty to eighteen. We left the ice dejected as the crowd gave us an ovation for the effort. I slumped down in my chair, tired from the extra time spent on the ice as well as taking more shots in a game than ever before. The mood was subdued when Fred came in and looked around.

"Gentlemen, we came against some hot goaltending tonight and despite our best efforts we came up short on the scoreboard," he said. "However, both teams know that this is by far the better team and with just one or two lucky bounces, it would be us that would be cheering in here. So, if we keep the same effort and intensity for tomorrow's game, I guarantee that we will win that game — especially now that Stewart has knocked out their first goalie for us!"