Page 50 of Goalie Interference

Ander

“That’s it. Show me what you got. I can take you. Don’t hold back. Give it to me.”

Thwap!

I love the sound of a puck colliding with the leather of my glove.

“Fuck!” Meier yells as soon as he realizes I beat his shot, plucking it out of thin air. He skates past me and taunts in his thick Swiss accent, “I thought you were supposed to suck now.”

“You wish,” I say as I let the ref take the puck out of my glove.

Gavin stops at my net and gives me a pat on the helmet. “Good save. I’m guessing dinner with Ivanov went well last night.”

“Not bad.” I grin at him.

“Is he still claiming it wasn’t a date?” Tavish asks as he skates by.

“Leave him alone,” Connor says, skating up to me to pat me on the helmet as well. He shoos Gavin and Tavish away with his hand. “Ready to close this one out?”

“Definitely.” I look up at the game clock. There are only two minutes left and the score is two zero in our favor. But I’m not naive enough to think this is going to be an easy two minutes. The New York Guardians are getting desperate. As soon as the ref drops the puck, they’re going to pull their goalie and I’m going to have to contend with an extra attacker.

It won’t matter. Tonight I’m dialed in. Go ahead and try to score on me, Guardians. I dare you.

When the puck drops, I’m ready, crouched in my crease. Connor wins the faceoff, but unfortunately, we’re unable to clear it out of our zone. Like I predicted, the Guardians aren’t giving up.

It’s fine. I’ve got this. Proven when I stop a shot by damn near doing the splits so I can block it with my left leg pad. It bounces off me and rolls towards the boards. Meier gets his stick on it, but immediately he’s hit by Gavin who sends him sprawling to the ice.

Gavin chips the puck to Connor who’s nearby and Connor clears it out of our zone, sending it down ice for the icing call so the ref will blow his whistle and everyone can reset at the dot.

He made the smart move. Everyone is gassed right now. Letting the puck travel down ice instead of chasing after it gives everyone on our team a chance to catch their breath.

Sure, the stoppage does the same for the Guardians, but since they’re the ones behind, it doesn’t do them nearly as much good. The pressure is still on their shoulders to get not just one, but two goals past me if they want to take this game to overtime.

I can promise them that that is not happening. Not tonight it’s not. There’s no way. They’re playing against two-time Stanley Cup champion, Olympic-gold-medal-winning Ander Bouchard, not the shell of myself I’ve been for most of this season so far.

The puck drops and Connor once again wins the faceoff. This time he sends it right to Tavish who is able to deke around the Guardians’ defense and make a breakaway down ice with the puck towards the empty net.

Three Guardians chase after him. But it doesn’t matter. They’re too far behind and with a soft tap from Tavish the puck slides past the goal line.

Three zero. This game is over and I can return to thinking about the upcoming Christmas break.

Nikolai

While the refs huddle together by the boards sorting out penalties from the scrum that just happened behind my net after I stopped Granlund from scoring, I look up at the jumbotron above the ice displaying scores from across the league tonight. The Blizzards game has just ended.

“Good job, Ander,” I say to myself when I see not only did the Blizzards win, but that Ander got a shutout. It’s fine. No one’s around to hear it. They’re all waiting to find out who is getting sent to the box and who else is getting sent to the locker room.

Tempers on the New Jersey Demons’ team have been edging towards boiling point since Ryan scored his second goal tonight. The score is currently five to one in our favor. A fight was inevitable.

So while I’m eager for this break in play to be over, it is nice that I can close out my own game knowing Ander played perfectly tonight. I can’t wait for this game to be over so I can call and congratulate him.

Or should I text? I should probably text. That’s the more normal thing to do. But I’d much prefer to hear his voice. Though he’ll probably be out celebrating with his team. I think they’re here for a few more days as they still have New Jersey to play, and then the other New York team before heading back to Buffalo.

Us Mules on the other hand are flying back to St. Louis tonight. Another reason why I want this game to end. I’m eager to get back to my space. We’ve been on the road for over a week now.

Finally, I see the ref make his way to center ice. This should be interesting.

“The Demons’ number seventy-five will receive two minutes for roughing, number sixty-three will receive five minutes for fighting, and number twenty-nine will receive a ten-minute misconduct. The Mules’ number twenty-five will receive two minutes for cross checking, number fifty-five will receive five minutes for fighting, and number forty-three receives a ten-minute misconduct.”