Puck Drills & Quick Thrills (CU Hockey 5)

“You mean apart from Asher?” Simms quips.

At the beginning of the season, that would’ve ended in a fight. Now, my brother just shrugs it off. “On their team, dickhead.”

Everyone laughs at that, and some of the defeated attitudes lift.

“If they have a weakness,” I say, “find it and use it to your advantage. And think how amazing it will feel to take their win from underneath them. It’s not theirs to take home yet. So get it back.”

Coach Hogan slaps my shoulder, the guys get riled up, and then it’s time to get back on the ice.

“Think they bought that bullshit?” Beck asks me quietly so no one else can hear.

“Let’s fucking hope so.”

The second the puck drops in the third period, Asher is on top of it. With a quick pass to Simms and a seamless play, they’re back in control. They pass from Simms to Kaplan and back to Asher, and they keep the puck in our zone for the first time tonight.

And two minutes into the period, my brother scores his first goal for the night.

“Yes!” I yell. That’s what we need.

We’re still in this game.

Only, it’s not enough. The team tries, and tries hard, to get another one in the net, but Cornell’s goalie is a brick wall. Rossi finds a gap on his shift, and everyone gets to their feet thinking we’ll score, but a Cornell defenseman blocks the puck just in time.

The game is fast, but points are slow. Neither team scores again, and as we head into the last five minutes of the game, we’re only down by one.

“We need to pull the goalie,” I say to Coach Hogan.

“Are you crazy?” Beck exclaims. “Do you know how much pressure that’ll put on them?”

Coach rubs his chin. “Let’s do it. High risk, high reward.” He calls our one and only time-out we’ve got in our back pocket.

When Coach tells them the plan, a nervous energy settles over the group.

“You’ve got this,” I say to them. “Just, for the love of Gretzky, don’t let them get the puck. Take this out.”

At the face-off, as soon as we have possession of the puck, Coach gives Schofield the signal to get his ass back to the bench.

As Schofield gets off the ice and Rossi joins the fold, the crowd sees what we’re doing, and the atmosphere grows. Screams echo around the rink.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Schofield says.

“So do I.”

Six on five. The odds are in our favor, but if one of the Cornell guys gets the puck, this is all over.

As if just by thinking it, I jinx the whole play. Asher passes to Kaplan, who passes back to Rossi, but it’s intercepted by Cornell.

Fuck!

As I watch the worst thing that could possibly happen unfold right in front of me, my heart leaps into my throat.

It’s a mess of players as they skate toward an empty net.

The crowd lets out an audible gasp. This is it. This is the end.

Stalberg, one of our defensemen, gets in the Cornell player’s way. He has no choice but to try for a slapshot.

I close my eyes and wait for the inevitable goal sound, but it doesn’t come. And when I open my eyes again, Rossi’s down, and Kaplan has possession. “What did I miss?”

“Are you kidding me?” Beck yells. “Rossi basically flew to stop that puck.”

It all happened so fast that by the time I follow Kaplan, I miss where he passes off to Simms, who looks like he’s going to shoot but at the last second passes back to Asher.

There are moments in hockey that you don’t know are going to be memorable for years to come. You watch every play, you trace every move, but until those moves pay off, you don’t know how it’s going to end. You don’t know you’re watching history being made until you see the replay.

Then there are moments like this one. Where, while you’re watching, you see greatness unfold.

The play is as chaotic as the home Asher and I live in, but I think that only makes Asher thrive more. Off the ice, Asher’s a mess, but he tackles home life and basically co-parenting our siblings like he does hockey—with self-assured confidence that may or may not be misplaced. At home, there’s a fifty-fifty chance of it working out.

On the ice, Asher’s unstoppable.

From a guy who could barely be a teammate at the start of the season, to times like these where he shows he’s future captain material, Asher is a force to be reckoned with.

He gets the puck to Rossi, who’s back on his skates. He hangs back until our guys are in place.

Then it happens like they’ve done this play a million times.

Rossi passes to Kaplan, Kaplan passes back to Rossi. Asher skates around the net to shake off the guy from Cornell who’s on his ass.