Page 49 of Slapshot Obsession
Maybe it’s that my job is literally to be excited and cheer for the hockey team, but I love watching the action on the ice.
The Bobcats are a fast, scrappy team that challenges the Cove Knights with aggressive stick handling and a ferocious dedication to puck possession.
The game is intense and exciting, and despite their scrappy attitude and strong defense. The Bobcats are no match for Mack’s speed and his on-ice chemistry with Colsen.
Our defense also does a job to be proud of, and very few pucks get past Nash and Haller. That means that Tucker has time to get bored in the crease. But on the few occasions the opposing team gets to take a shot at his goal, his reaction time and flexibility deny them any scoring chance.
In the third period, the Cove Knights are leading by two goals, and the game is shaping up to be a shutout.
The action begins with a face-off at center ice that Mack wins easily. The whole arena begins shouting their support for the Knights, and I realize that, despite this being a pre-season game, the town came out in numbers to support our team.
Mack dekes the Portland defenseman easily, leaving him disoriented as he propels forward on a breakaway. He unleashes one hell of a slapshot that flies past the Bobcats’ goalie and gets into his five-hole, bringing our lead to three-zero.
We’re all still cheering and jumping, and the Jumbotron is showing a replay of the action when all hell breaks loose.
Mack is skating at a leisurely pace toward center ice, and there’s no puck in play when the defenseman he smoked before grabs him by the back of his jersey.
Mack barely has the time to turn around and doesn’teven see the fist that hits him square in the jaw, knocking off his helmet.
He goes down like a sack of potatoes, and the defenseman who hit him jumps on top of him, straddling him with his fist in the air, ready to strike again.
“Mack, watch out!” I yell with the rest of the arena.
“Oh my God. I can’t look.” Gen covers her eyes.
“Ref, where the hell are you?” Jodie screams at the same time that the referee blows his whistle, headed to break the fight.
Nash and Colsen get there faster than the referee. The Portland D-man, however, is able to land one more blow that causes blood to spurt out of Mack’s nose before he’s yanked off of our left winger.
Nash’s gloves hit the ice, and a few seconds later, the Bobcats’ D-man hits the boards with a deafening sound, louder than all the voices in the arena.
As Colsen leans down to check on Mack, another Bobcat player joins the fight.
He takes Colsen by surprise, using his stick to trip him.
I brace myself for the blows that I’m sure are headed for Colsen, when Tucker appears to support his best friend.
Seeing the goalie leave his crease to join a fight isn’t an everyday occurrence, so the Jumbotron leaves Mack and Nash to focus on Tucker.
I’ll never be one hundred percent sure about what he said after he rips his helmet off his head. But reading his lips on the big screen, I’d say it’s close to “Fuck with my best friend and I’ll end you.”
From that moment, it’s chaos as all four referees converge to restore order. Two of them separate Tucker, Colsen, and their aggressor, and one goes to end the fight between Nash and Mack’sattacker.
The fourth one calls on the Cove Knights’ bench to come and check on Mack, who’s still clutching his bleeding nose and looks disoriented.
After order is restored, it’s time for the referees to decide on how to handle what just happened. The crowd watches with bated breath for the penalties we’re sure are about to rain on both teams.
We cheer with glee when the Bobcats’ D-man is assigned a five minute major penalty. But then it’s the Cove Knights’ turn. Nash gets two minutes for fighting. I guess the referee is being lenient because the Bobcats started the fight.
Fortunately for Tucker, the referees decided on a minor penalty rather than eviction from the game because Tucker intervened in defense of his teammates when the Bobcats were the offenders. Tucker avoids the sin bin and gets to stay in the game, but that means that another player needs to serve the penalty on his behalf.
Colsen is sent to the sin bin for two minutes in place of Tucker.
“So wait a second,” Jodie muses. “Colsen is being punished on Tucker’s behalf? Not because of the fight?”
I think about it for a second. “Yeah, I think it’s right. Colsen didn’t really hit anyone. He just went to check on Mack. Even at the end, he was just trying to separate Tucker and the Bobcats’ D-man.”
To my surprise, Genevieve agrees with me. “Taryn is right. Colsen didn’t really fight. But Tucker should have stayed in his crease and not gotten involved. Now they have a powerplay.”
