The plane trip south was a riot. Some of the boys had been on a big plane before and others hadn’t. If anyone was nervous, it didn’t show. Ben had his hands full, but thankfully there was help from a few parents who had agreed to come along for the tournament. Other than the odd peanut or cookie thrown at a teammate and the noise level that at times became unbearable for some of the other passengers, there were no major disasters.
When they arrived in Edmonton, two vans were waiting to take the players directly to their hotel in St. Albert. Ben had told Mike that he didn’t want the team to face too many distractions before the upcoming tournament. They would have time to visit the West Edmonton Mall and other sites before they flew home. As it was, their game against St. Albert was the next afternoon. The St. Albert Gazette and the Edmonton Journal had already contacted Ben to see if they could interview Arctic Thunder players. With reservations Ben had agreed but only after their first game with St. Albert was out of the way.
The noise level escalated as the vans drove through the city. When the boys spotted the West Edmonton Mall, they went berserk.
“Oh, man!” Tommy shouted from the back. “Donnie farted again!”
Ben turned to scold Tommy and try to settle things down.
“I actually did this time!” Donnie cried gleefully. “Taste the wrath of the Donster!” The windows of the van were quickly rolled down amid howls and groans. Ben actually stuck his head out the window at one point. The flight had been slightly turbulent, and the “Donster” was mighty ripe!
It was late afternoon by the time the team was checked in at the hotel. A quick supper was arranged at Boston Pizza, and Ben made sure the team was quickly settled in for the night. No one complained. They were excited but apprehensive about the next day. It was well after midnight before Mike finally fell asleep.
The team had a late breakfast the next morning and then bussed to the Servus Place Sports Complex, which had three ice surfaces, two indoor soccer fields, a running track that went around the top of the building, an exercise and weight area, and a pool with water slides. When the boys stepped into the main arena where the opening ceremonies and their first game would take place, their mouths dropped open. They looked down on rows of red high-backed seats encircling the playing surface. Mike told them the arena could hold twenty-five hundred people, not including standing room.
David gasped. “This is unbelievable! More than half the population of Inuvik could sit here and watch us play.”
“And it’s going to be pretty full for the first game against St. Albert,” Ben said. “The home team against a team from the Northwest Territories in the opener will be a big draw. It’s going to be a bit distracting, guys, but we have to get over that and concentrate on the game.”
Joseph wandered over and stood beside Mike. “This is where St. Albert’s Junior A hockey team plays, isn’t it?” It was more of a comment than a question.
“That’s right, Joseph,” Mike said.
“Man, I blew it!” Joseph shook his head as he took in the seats and huge clock hanging over the playing surface. He turned to Mike. “You know what, though? I think this means more to me than anything else could. I won’t let you down, Mike. I have a lot to make up for, and it’s going to start here. Maybe I’ll get another chance at hockey and maybe I won’t, but I love this.” He held up the lacrosse stick he was carrying. “For some reason this feels right.”
Mike nodded. “I feel the same way, Joseph. Once you get lacrosse under your skin, it’s hard to shake. Wait until you get your first big hit this afternoon. Wait until you score your first goal. It only gets better.”
The boys didn’t have much time to talk. They were soon hustled under the seats to a dressing room where they stored their equipment. After a short wait, the festivities began.
The opening ceremonies were a blur. The teams were led in by people carrying their club names on banners. When the Arctic Thunder players were announced, they marched onto the floor and received the loudest ovation next to the one St. Albert got.
It was all very emotional for Mike. The guys from St. Albert spotted him and waved. Spencer, Cayln, Taylor, Ryan, and the rest of the guys came over and shook Mike’s hand. It was a bit awkward, too. Mike was incredibly happy to see his old buddies, but he didn’t want it to appear that he was favouring them over his new teammates. He felt a little stiff standing there and was relieved when the guys had to go back to their spot for the national anthem and a speech from the mayor of St. Albert. It all ended quickly and then it was time to get dressed for the game.
The team elected Tommy and Bobby to be assistant captains, and with ten minutes left before faceoff, Ben voiced his final comments. “Okay, guys, listen up! This is your first game. Things are going to seem a lot faster than in practice. Just stay calm and keep your heads in the game and you’ll be fine.” He paced across the room, then turned to the players. “When they have the ball, we run back and box it up. When there’s a loose ball, it’s ours. We win it.” A buzzer sounded outside the dressing room. “That’s it, guys! Time to get on the floor. And remember, this isn’t a practice against your buddies anymore. The hitting is for real. So keep your heads up and don’t be afraid to hammer somebody out there. Let’s go!”
“Let’s go, man!” Mike shouted.
“Let’s go, Inuvik!” Tommy yelled.
As they ran through the tunnel and out under the harsh lighting on the floor, some of the boys couldn’t help but stop and stare. The seats were almost full, and it seemed as if they were surrounded by a sea of faces.
“Get moving, Donnie!” Mike yelled at the big boy as he jogged past. “Snap out of it. You gotta get warmed up!”
The warm-up went quickly. The mayor returned to the floor, and the captains were called to centre for an official faceoff. Mike met Spencer with the referee, and they shook hands awkwardly.
“This seems pretty weird,” Spencer mumbled under his breath.
“I know,” Mike said, “but I’m gonna knock you on your butt!”
Spencer grinned as the boys bent for the faceoff. Spencer being captain for the home team drew the ball back before picking it up and handing it to the mayor. Mike and Spencer shook hands again and wished each other good luck before jogging back and rejoining their respective teams. It was game time!
Ben started Mike with Mitchell and Tyler, along with Joseph and Mark as shooters. Kneeling for the faceoff, Mike glanced up to see Ryan Domino smirking at him from the other side of the ball. “Ready to lose, Mike?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing, Domino.” Despite his smile, Mike felt a cold, queasy tempest in his stomach.
The referee backed away and blew his whistle. Ryan dug in and pulled the ball behind him where Cayln was waiting. Mitchell seemed to freeze, and Cayln darted past, throwing a quick pass up to Taylor.
“Box it up!” Ben shouted.
Taylor whipped the ball across to Spencer, who threw a pass over to Scott. Shifting his weight forward, Scott stepped into a shot that rippled the net before Donnie even moved. The fans and the Rams’ bench erupted in cheering.
“Time, Ref!” Mike yelled at the referee. “Time out!”
Blowing his whistle, the referee pointed at the Inuvik bench to signal who had called a timeout.
“Run it in!” Ben cried. “Run it in!”
Mike led the way, and they huddled around the front of the bench.
“Okay, everybody,” Ben said, “that was your one wonderstruck goal. You’re over it. Now let’s get our heads into the game and settle down. Beat them to the ball. Let’s go, Thunder!”
The boys all stuck their gloves into a circle and cried, “One, two, three, Thunder!”
“Let’s change things up,” Ben said. “I want Tommy, Gwen, and Bobby, with Joseph and Ricky as shooters. Hustle out!”
Tommy lined up across from Taylor to kneel for the faceoff. When the referee blew his whistle, Tommy pushed Taylor away from the ball. Blowing his whistle again, the referee signalled that it was the Rams’ ball. Tommy straightened, puzzlement in his face as he jogged back to his own net.
Taylor scooped up the ball and raced into the Inuvik end. With a burst of speed he slipped into the corner, spun, and passed the ball to Spencer, the shooter. Spencer faked a shot and moved the ball across to Scott. Arctic Thunder had a box set up and were doing a good job of keeping the Rams outside. All at once Brady and Cayln crossed in front of the net, switching sides. Cayln posted up and spun for a pass. Brady, who was incredibly fast, jogged behind the net and out the other side. The manoeuvre confused the Thunder, and no one stuck with Brady. The pass from Scott hit Brady’s stick flush in the basket, and he quick-sticked the ball at the top corner. Donnie reacted rapidly, flicking his big stick across, but he only partially blocked the shot. It tipped off the end of his stick and into the net. The Rams were up 2–0, with only two minutes off the game clock.
“You’ve got to switch, guys,” Ben said to the players as they came to the bench to change up. “You’ve got to switch and talk to each other out there.” There was a bit of chaos, and the Thunder only sent four players out for the next faceoff.
“Not enough guys, Dad,” Mike said, heading for the gate.
Ben grabbed Mike by the jersey. “Hang on a second, son. Let’s see if Dennis can win the draw.”
Backing up, the referee blew his whistle. Dennis dug down and leveraged the ball toward his own net so that Mark could scoop it up.
“Break, Mike, break!” Ben said, pushing Mike out of the box. Mike sprinted as fast as he could toward the Rams’ net.
“Ball, ball!” he cried, looking over his shoulder. Dennis spotted Mike and launched a long-range pass as hard as he could down the floor. Glancing over his shoulder, Mike accelerated, judging that he would have to run at top speed to receive the pass. He was right, and his timing was perfect. His heart leaped into his chest as he realized he was going to catch the pass and have a breakaway. As the ball touched down in his stick, Mike didn’t see the Rams player come off the bench late. With a sickening thud Mike took the hit in the most vulnerable position possible — arms stretched above his head, looking back, catching the ball. As he crashed to the floor, the ball popped loose. The Rams player scooped it up and threw a long-range pass of his own to Taylor, who caught the Thunder off guard with the sudden change of direction. In all alone on Donnie, Taylor faked high and bounced a shot between his legs and into the net — 3–0 Rams.
Dazed, Mike sat on the floor as the Rams player who had hit him loomed over him. “Welcome back, homeboy!” the guy said, smirking. Turning, he jogged over to the Rams bench. Warchuk was written across the shoulders of his jersey.
Stumbling to his feet, Mike headed back toward the Thunder bench. “Who the heck’s that?” he asked as he ran past Cayln.
“Eric Warchuk. He’s a really great player. Moved here from Vancouver a few months back.”
“Well, he better keep his head up!” Mike shouted back.
“He’s a good guy, Mike. It was a clean hit. He was just showing you that you have to keep your head up.” Under all the anger and frustration, Mike knew Cayln was right. He likely would have done the same thing if he had a chance for a great hit like that. But it still sucked!
The rest of the period didn’t go much better than the first few minutes. By the time the buzzer sounded to signal the period was over, the score was 7–0 for the Rams. The Thunder didn’t even have a shot on net. Warchuk had three of the goals. The team sat dejectedly in silence on the floor along the boards, guzzling water during the break. Donnie seemed close to tears.
Ben walked back and forth, then halted in front of Mike. Catching his son’s eye, he winked, then became very serious. “Mike, that has got to be the worst period of lacrosse I’ve ever seen you play. It was pathetic! You owe this team an apology. If you were trying as hard as everyone else, we’d be in this game instead of behind by seven. And what’s this trying to win it all on your own crap? This is a team sport, and you know it. You’re the only guy who’s actually been in a game before, and instead of showing everyone else how to settle things down, you’re setting the wrong example.”
“Coach!”
Everyone turned to see Gwen standing at the end of the line of players sitting on the floor.
“We’re all letting you down,” Gwen said. “We all need to do better. We seem surprised at how fast this is and how good these guys are. We shouldn’t be. We knew this wasn’t going to be easy, and if we thought it was, we were dreaming. Mike might be trying to do too much, but we have to do more. Now let’s go!” As if to emphasize her point, she slammed her stick against the boards and marched back to the bench.
The other players jumped to their feet, and with yells of encouragement, headed to the bench as the referee blew his whistle to announce the start of the second period.
“How you holding up, Donnie?” Ben asked as Donnie wandered over to put on his mask and gloves.
Donnie shook his head. “Jeez, I suck! I bet you’re wishing Grant never got hurt and you didn’t have a big fat goof in net like me.”
Ben gripped Donnie by the shoulders and stopped him in his tracks. Standing over him, he gazed into the boy’s enormous eyes. “Donnie, I wouldn’t want anyone else in net but you. This isn’t hockey. The scores are higher, and when a team like ours is adjusting, the goalie takes a bit of a beating. You’re getting better with each minute of this game. Having you in net means a lot to this team. Now get in there and knock ’em dead.”
Donnie’s eyes narrowed to normal size, and he tightened his lips until they became a thin line. Determination in his face, he pulled his mask on and strode defiantly toward his net. “It’s Donnie’s turn now!” he growled.
The team settled down, and the second period was much better than the first. Donnie adjusted to the speed of the passes and began to make save after incredible save. Ben shifted things around and came up with player combinations that seemed to work well. He kept Mike at point with his basketball line of Mitchell and Tyler on crease. Bobby at point with Gwen on crease worked extremely well, and he rotated Mark and Tommy at the other crease position. As shooters, he paired Joseph with Dennis and Billy with David. That seemed to create a strong balance.
With time winding down in the second period, the Rams had only scored one additional goal, but Warchuk was still doing a great job of getting under the Thunder players’ skins. He was a strong, lean, quick player with fantastic stick skills. Warchuk was always in the action, and when he battled Joseph a little too vigorously and stripped him of the ball, the big boy lost his temper. Chasing Warchuk into the corner, Joseph levelled him with a check from behind and got a five-minute penalty.
Ben put out Ricky, Mitchell, Bobby, and David. Mitchell and Ricky did a sensational job of ragging the ball. With his long rock-star hair flowing behind his helmet, Mitchell frustrated the Rams as he dodged around the net. His hours of training for snowshoe races had given him a supply of energy that seemingly had no end. Ricky was like an evil twin but without the long hair. When the Rams did get the ball, Bobby and David did their bit defensively, and Donnie stopped everything that got past them. All the same it was five-on-four, and in lacrosse that made a huge difference in five minutes. The Rams scored two more goals before the end of the period to make it 10–0.
With a short bench of only twelve players, the Thunder were beginning to feel fatigue as they sat down for the break between the second and third periods. Ben got to his feet to provide some words of encouragement when a ruckus broke out near the closest gate leading onto the floor. All the players looked up as a face with a thick walrus-like moustache appeared through the Plexiglas.
The gate swung open, and Todd Lorenz marched across the floor. Patting Ben on the back, he turned and shook his head at the players. “That’s got to be one of the best comeback periods of lacrosse I’ve ever seen. You guys … and gal —” he winked at Gwen “— are amazing! Keep adjusting to the game and stay calm. You’re incredible athletes. And you’ve got a terrific goalie in net.” He looked at Donnie. “Where in the world did you come from? You must’ve been hiding when I was in Inuvik.”
The players all smiled, including Donnie, who had seemed as if he were about to die a moment earlier.
“But, Mr. Lorenz … Todd,” Gwen said quietly, “isn’t your son on the other team? What are you doing here?”
“Man, this isn’t hockey or football or any other sport,” Todd said. “This is lacrosse! In lacrosse we help each other out because it helps the game. And the game is what we play for. You gotta love it!” He grinned from ear to ear.
The referee blew his whistle, indicating the start of the third period. The players stood and gathered around Ben and Todd.
“Now put it in here, Thunder, and give ’em hell!” Todd yelled.
“One, two, three, Inuvik!” the team shouted.
The third period was beautiful. Halfway through no one had scored, and the play had shifted to a more even distribution of shots on each net. With about eight minutes left the Rams took a rare penalty, and Ben called the players back to the bench.
“Okay, guys, let’s really take our time and set this up. I want Mike, Gwen, and Bobby up front. Mark, I want you out with Joseph as shooters. Control that ball, move it around, and shoot when you get your chances. Let’s go!”
The Rams won the faceoff, and Warchuk scooped the ball up at full speed. Lifting his head, he was met straight on by the Inuvialuit bowling ball. Mark had read the play, and much like the earlier hit on Mike, he clobbered the Rams player as soon as Warchuk had the ball. Warchuk hit the floor hard, his head snapping back as he fell. The ball popped out of his stick, and Joseph scooped it up, quickly passing to
Bobby as he entered the Rams’ zone.
Warchuk shook his head as he ran past Mark.
“Nice hit.”
The Rams set up their box as the Thunder moved the ball around the outside. Bobby passed back to Joseph, who moved it quickly to Mark. Mark threw the ball to the corner where Mike picked it up. The Thunder’s captain faked a shot and passed to Mark on the point. Mark jogged behind the net, stopping just outside the crease near the post. He passed to Joseph, who quickly threw the ball to Bobby. Gwen had broken free and was cutting for the net. Bobby passed the ball as she rushed past Mike toward the other side of the net. The Rams’ goalie, Kirk Miles, shifted across as Gwen caught the ball, expecting her to shoot. Mike stood ready, and when she passed the ball over her shoulder, he fired it into the open side of the net. The Thunder’s players went wild on the bench as Bobby, Gwen, Mark, and Joseph mobbed Mike. It was 10–1 for the Rams, but the Thunder felt as if they had just won the championship.
“Whooooo!” rang out above the other polite cheers and clapping in the crowd. Turning toward the stands, the Thunder players spotted Todd Lorenz standing with both arms stretched above his head. Holding a thumb up, he nodded at the team.
Their first goal seemed to inspire the Thunder. They dominated the last five minutes of the game, winning every loose ball and getting some great chances on net. With one minute left in the game, once again they had the ball controlled in the Rams’ zone. The clock was ticking down the final minute when Dennis fired a laser pass to Tommy in the corner. Faking toward the net, he ran behind and pulled back his stick, ready to pass to Gwen, who was streaking toward the net. Instead, he pulled his stick down, coiled his legs under his body, and launched himself into the air. Sailing over the crease horizontally, he caught Kirk by surprise and popped the ball into the far side of the net before landing on the floor. This time there were more than a few gasps from the crowd, and the applause was quite a bit louder.
The final score was 10–2, but the Thunder held the Rams scoreless for the entire third period and won some fans in the process. As the teams lined up and shook hands, the Rams stopped and talked to Mike and the other Inuvik players.
Warchuk stood next to Mike and slapped him on the back. “You’re all right, man! You guys are gonna do okay in the tournament.”
Mike grinned. “I can still feel that hit you gave me.”
Warchuk groaned. “You can feel that hit? Jeez, my teeth are still loose from that Kikoak guy hitting me.
Man, is he strong for his size.”
Mike shook his head. “You have no idea.”
Mike was proud of his team, but there wasn’t much time to dwell on the finer points of this game. Tomorrow morning they played Leduc.