The Summer Hockey Camp World Peewee Championship would be a single match, Screech Owls against Aeros, winner take all. Muck Munro would be behind the Owls’ bench, and Sarah’s father, Mr. Cuthbertson, would handle the Aeros’bench. Simon and Jason would referee. Starting centres: Sarah Cuthbertson for the Aeros, Travis Lindsay for the Screech Owls.
Travis couldn’t remember ever feeling quite so alive before the puck had even dropped. It was better than before the championship game in Lake Placid, the big game at the Little Stanley Cup in Toronto, the fantastic final against the Waskaganish Wolverines at the First Nations Pee Wee Hockey Tournament in James Bay. And yet nothing was at stake here. There were no reporters in the stands, no scouts, almost no fans. If you took away the parents, the seats would be completely empty. The game wasn’t sanctioned, the officials weren’t real, and the score wouldn’t count for anything but a bit of good-natured ribbing.
But it felt good. It felt absolutely right when Travis was taping on his shin pads–right one first, then left–and Muck had walked in and scowled at them. It felt perfect when he’d come in after everyone was dressed and Nish had started holding his gut and bouncing lightly so his head kept dipping down toward his knees. Muck had stood there and waited for everyone’s attention, Nish’s included. He reminded the forwards to keep to the hash marks in their own end, and the defence not to get caught pinching, and told them all to watch their passes.
Muck was right back where he belonged.
Sarah smiled at Travis just before Simon dropped the puck. It was great to be back playing with Sarah–even if she was on the other team. It was great to be reminded what a beautiful skater she was and what a brilliant playmaker. Travis wished she was still with the Owls, but he understood; she said she was headed for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, and everyone was absolutely sure she would make it.
The puck dropped, and the roar that burst from the parents was as loud and excited as in any real tournament.
Travis used Sarah’s own little trick and plucked the puck out of the air before it hit the ice. He pulled it into his skates, turned so his hip blocked Sarah from checking him, and sent a quick pass back to Nish.
He was sure he heard Nish laugh as he picked up the puck.
Nish waited for Sarah’s winger to chase him, then slipped the puck neatly between her skates and bounced a pass off the boards to Derek, who hit Travis at centre.
Travis didn’t have to think, didn’t even have to look. This, he told himself, is when hockey becomes art. He and Dmitri had worked this play so many times, they could do it in their sleep. He lofted the puck up and past the defence, while Dmitri used his astonishing speed to slip around the defence and get instantly clear. The shoulder fake…the Aeros goalie went down…and Dmitri roofed a backhand.
Owls 1, Aeros 0.
Travis closed his eyes when he got to the bench. He could feel Muck’s big hand on his neck. He could feel Nish smack the seat of his pants with his stick. He could feel Dmitri’s shoulder against his, the two of them now so used to each other on the ice that they no longer needed words or even looks to communicate. They just knew where each other was, and where each other would be.
Sarah’s line had stayed out. She was still smiling. And before the face-off, she skated right along the Owls’ bench.
“Hey, Naked Boy!” she called out.
Naked Boy? Everyone looked around, wondering what she meant. She was looking directly at Nish. He had his head down, but was watching her suspiciously.
“What about it, Naked Boy?” Sarah called. “No skinny dipping so far?”
“Tonight,” Nish said.
“Sure,” Sarah laughed. “We’ll believe it when we see it!”
“You won’t see nothin’,” Nish said, shaking his head.
“That’s ’cause there’s nothing to see!” kidded Sarah.
Simon whistled for the centres to come to centre ice for the face-off, and Sarah skated away, still laughing.
Travis leaned back and said to Nish: “What’s this about ‘Naked Boy’?”
Nish shook his head. “I have no idea–but it’s a great improvement over ‘Fat Boy.’”
The game went back and forth for more than an hour. Sarah scored; Gordie Griffth scored on a hard shot from high in the circle; an Aeros defence scored on a deflection; Nish scored on a low shot from the point; Travis scored; and Sarah scored again, on a beautiful solo rush in which she simply skated around poor Wilson and drew Jeremy half out of his net before dropping the puck in over the line.
Owls 4, Aeros 3.
“Last two minutes of play!” Simon shouted before dropping the puck again.
The Owls and Aeros both pulled off quick line changes. Muck wanted Travis’s line out, with Nish and Data back on defence. The Aeros, of course, wanted Sarah out. She had scored twice and set up the third of the Aeros’ three goals, and she was clearly fired up for this match against her old team and coach.
The ice was bad. Travis hated ice toward the end of the period and late in games. He loved new ice, so freshly flooded it was as if his skates were writing his name on the smooth surface. He liked quick, smooth ice for passing, hard ice for his fast turns, quick ice for his shots. This ice was chopped up and snowy. He could barely carry the puck in it.
Nish had the puck behind his own net, watching, waiting. If he could kill some time, so much the better. The Owls had the lead, after all. But at the very least, he wanted to get the puck out clean so the Owls could take it into the Aeros’ end. Sarah Cuthbertson couldn’t score from there.
Travis knew his play. He was to skate back hard and turn sharp right in front of his own net. Heading up ice on a slight angle, Nish would either hit him with a direct pass or else fire it out along the boards for either Derek or Dmitri on the wing to chop out past the defence so Travis could pick the puck up in the neutral zone. Travis could then cross centre ice and dump it in.
Travis dug deep and turned. Nish made a fancy play, firing the puck on his backhand so it hit the boards behind him and bounced out just after the forechecking forward had gone by. Nish had time, and he saw Travis. He went for the up-ice pass. He passed hard, and the puck hit the back of Travis’s blade perfectly, right at the blueline.
Travis was already in full flight. He looked up immediately to see one defence charging him, chancing a poke check. He tried to do what Nish had done earlier in the game–just slip the puck between the checker’s skates. But that had been on good ice, and the ice was now so thick and slow that the puck stopped dead, and the checker had a chance to drag her skate so it picked up the puck.
The Aero kicked the puck ahead to her stick and then hit Sarah Cuthbertson, who was charging back. Sarah turned instantly, actually passing to herself by leaving a drop pass which she then picked up going the other way. Travis couldn’t believe how fast she had been able to change from one direction to the other.
There was only Nish back. He was too smart to be fooled again by Sarah’s trick of picking up the puck. He wasn’t about to lunge; he was going to wait.
Sarah bent as if to scoop the puck again, but Nish refused to go for it. She scooped snow instead, flicking it in the air at Nish’s head. He instinctively ducked, and when he moved slightly, Sarah dropped the puck into her skates, knocked it from one blade to the other and then back up onto her stick, which was already on the other side of Nish.
A quick wrist shot, and all Travis could see was the net bulge behind Jeremy.
Sarah had tied the game: Owls 4, Aeros 4.
The Aeros leapt from the bench and jumped all over Sarah. Simon blew his whistle, and the game was over. A tie. The best result possible. The parents rose in a standing ovation. Muck raced across the ice and shook Mr. Cuthbertson’s hand, the two of them laughing at what they had just seen.
The two teams lined up to shake hands. Travis followed Nish, who seemed heartbroken that he had let Sarah slip away.
“C’mon, you owed her one,” Travis said.
“I guess.”
They came to Sarah, who had her helmet off and was still laughing.
“Now you know why we call you ‘Naked Boy,’” she said to Nish.
“I don’t get it,” he said.
“I just undressed you out there, didn’t I?”