Page 34 of Breaking the Ice (Denver Stampede #6)

The texting we’d done over the last week had been sporadic, and I couldn’t wait to get home tomorrow. I had a surprise for her. Yeah, she hated them, but this one she was going to love.

We’d played decent on our road trip, losing to Florida in overtime and then trouncing Tampa four to one.

Hopefully, we’d beat Carolina tonight and go home with five points.

We had one last away game of this trip, but it was against the Blizzard, so that was basically a home game.

I couldn’t wait to have her in the stands and see what shit Roger spewed at me on the ice.

He was an annoyance I’d deal with if it meant I could keep Dani. And fuck, that was pitiful.

I shook my head to focus back in the game.

I couldn’t be daydreaming about Dani if I wanted to win, even if she’d given me an extra pep in my step when I was between the pipes.

Maybe she would stick around if she knew she was my good luck charm.

I was sitting at three wins out of three starts, and yeah, the season had just started, but I felt optimistic about this year.

I did a little hop on the ice to get my blood flowing and glanced down to the opposite end of the rink.

My boys were still battling it out, and I knew our second line had to be gassed by now.

They were just passing the puck back and forth, attempting to find the right angle as Carolina tried to snag the puck away.

It was currently on Dom’s stick and he passed it to Haldy.

Haldy was one of the younger guys on the team and phenomenal.

Injuries had plagued him last year, but he’d looked great in training camp and in our first few games.

I glanced up at the Jumbotron to get a better view.

Haldy deked around one of Carolina’s D, skating behind the back of the net, and then took his shot.

The angle was sick, and it slid right under the goalie’s leg pad.

Fuck, those shots were difficult to anticipate.

I almost felt bad for the guy, but only for a split second.

I jumped again with a shout and pointed my stick toward my teammates at the other end of the ice.

I couldn’t skate over to them as they hugged.

No zoomies tonight, and especially none in the middle of the game.

We were now up three to zero with five minutes left in the second.

I was sitting pretty confident, but never cocky.

Cocky got you nowhere; it was true results that mattered.

Thirty minutes later, I crouched down. We were a few minutes into the third period and I was holding strong, keeping Carolina out of my net. It was still three to zero and I was doing everything I could to keep that zero.

One of Carolina’s forwards crowded into Timmy, who crowded into me. I lost track of the puck for a second, my eyes darting around the side of Timmy.

“Fucking move. Clear him out,” I said to my teammate, giving Timmy a tap with my stick.

“Sorry, Tucks,” Timmy replied, nudging the forward as they both got out of my paint.

My eyes were already back on the puck, darting between it and the face of the forward who currently had it on his stick.

Micah crowded the guy into the corner so he couldn’t take the shot and then they were both skating behind the net.

I kept my gaze focused, shifting my body with every movement of the Carolina player.

He deked to the side, but Micah was there, his stick out, trying to poke the puck away.

The Carolina forward knocked the puck to his teammate and my attention shifted again.

Carolina kept it in the zone, passing from one player to the next, but my boys weren’t letting them find a shot.

We were all getting antsy, and I knew their legs were probably jelly, but none of them would even attempt to do a change with Carolina in our zone.

Finally, the Carolina center took his shot, but I spotted it through all the traffic in front of me and snagged it with my glove when they tried to go top shelf, ending the play.

“Sweet save, Tucks,” Timmy called out, tapping his stick against my pads before he skated to the face-off dot to my left.

Dom easily won the face-off and sent the puck over to Micah so the forward line could do a shift change.

Our third line hit the ice, and Micah passed Sweets the puck before he and Timmy exited the ice for Lamb and Fishy to hop on.

The next fifteen minutes passed by quickly with no one scoring, and then Carolina pulled their goalie with ninety seconds left, allowing for an extra forward on the ice.

I rolled my shoulders and tapped both pipes.

“Let’s finish this,” I said, hitting my stick against my pads.

I squatted and then did a jump, keeping my eyes on the puck throughout.

“Get an empty,” I called out to Tally, who grinned and attempted to snag the puck from one of the opposing forwards.

He had two of tonight’s goals, so another one would give him a hat trick.

It was common practice that, if a guy had two goals, everyone else did whatever they could to help that player get that hat trick—within reason, of course.

We weren’t going to get sloppy and allow Carolina to get the puck and score. Our focus would not slide.

Carolina was in our zone, and the extra attacker just made for more people that I had to concentrate on.

Carolina passed the puck back and forth, moving in closer to me.

Their first shot banged off the pipes, but they got the rebound.

Micah checked the guy with the puck into the boards and then the two of them were battling for the puck.

Santa and Sin joined the mess along with two more Carolina players, and I made sure to fill as much of my net as possible.

The puck got loose, but ended up on Carolina’s stick, and I narrowed my focus on the guy. His eyes darted from left to right, and when he took his shot, I was there, snagging it out of the air before it could sail over my shoulder and into the net.

“Fuck yeah,” Sin called out, a wide grin on his face.

The two centers crouched over the face-off dot, but Carolina won, quickly taking another shot, which luckily bounced off the pipes.

Tally grabbed it and streaked up the ice and between the two Carolina defensemen before they could stop him.

The empty net was all his and he shot. The goal buzzer blared and hats rained down on the ice.

It was still a decent amount, but it would’ve been more if we were home in Denver.

Now we just had to get through the last ten seconds for me to get my shutout.

When play started again, those last few seconds wound down. Carolina made one last attempt, but the horn blared the end of the game and I had my first shutout of the season.

Fuck yeah.

I loved every helmet tap and grin from my teammates as they congratulated me. Then we all skated back to the bench and headed to the locker room to celebrate our win.

Damn, I loved this game more than anything, and I couldn’t wait to play against the Blizzard in two days. Roger could go fuck himself.