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Chapter Fifteen
MAVERICK
We played to a 0-0 tie, then went right into a shootout.
I was amazed how engaged the crowd was with it too.
It had been a good game though.
A ton of shots.
I obviously saved every single one.
On the other end, the opposing goalie had almost done the same.
He was older than me. Everyone knew Henry. An old-school kind of goalie at that. He knew how to get in the way, create his own traffic, and he managed to get a goal scored by Lay overturned.
It was a long few minutes, standing there with my mask pulled back, looking up at the massive screen dangling in the center of the arena.
Each time the replay was shown, the crowd cheered for us, figuring there was no way the goal would get overturned.
The problem?
Henry knew how to sell himself.
Reid had skated too close to the net as Lay took a shot.
The puck went top right shelf and into the net.
As it did so, Henry moved toward Reid.
There was contact between the goalie and the defenseman. And the goal post looked to move just a little.
The refs finished the extended review of the play and announced it wasno goaldue to interference.
That got the arena roaring withboos.
Lay tried to plead his case but it was no use.
That was the final decision.
And that decision got into Lay’s head so bad that Coach had to bench him for a short moment to calm him down. Within a minute of leaving the bench, Lay got penalized for slashing, which put the other team on a two-minute power play. That was a big pain in the ass to defend.
The thing with hockey games was that the momentum could swing either way really quick. And when it did, you had to be ready.
If that goal had counted, all the momentum would have been in our corner.
Since the goal had been called off, the other team had the jump and momentum.
It didn’t help that Lay was in the penalty box. And it didn’t help that the fans were still pissed about the ref’s decision.
I survived that two minutes of hell.
And I survived the rest of the game.
Once in a shootout, all the pressure shifted toward me even more.
I readied myself for the final shot.
