The Junior Goodwill Games *Gunnar Stahl*

Chapter Four

The flight to Los Angeles went by very quickly. In a plane filled with teenage boys with raging hormones made for good entertainment for all of us beside Ms. Mackay and Coach Bombay who struggled with keeping them in line. To my surprise, even Adam and Charlie couldn't sit still. If you're looking to land a plane mid-course, all you have to do is fly with this team. Trust me.

After arriving in LA we were picked up in a large bus with Hendricks advertised on both sides, it took us to the dorms where we would be staying throughout the competition. There, we decided who we'd be rooming with. It was a lot easier for the boys because their rooms were bigger than ours, they had three beds per room and we only had two. I decided to take one for the team and room by myself leaving Gaffney and Connie to room together.

After a long night of tossing and turning from all the nerves, I was awoken by pounding against the wooden door of the dorm room. We had our first game against Trinidad Tobago, tenth-seeded team. 

We soon figured out we were the second-seeded team, trailing closely behind the one team I was almost dreading to play; Iceland. But there was no way I'd be faced with such an extreme coincidence. I put all my thoughts and paranoia aside and threw myself into the game, this is what I was good at. I had all the confidence that we could win this.

As we skated out onto the ice, I realized Goldberg taking his place in front of the goal. Surprised, I looked back at the bench to see Gaffney in full pads but comfortable in her seat. I turned to Charlie, "Is he planning on benching Julie?"

He shrugged with a slight eye roll, "I hope not. I love Goldie, but man's pretty rusty and we need her."

"Do you think it's a loyalty thing? Like Coach doesn't want to piss him off?"

"I don't know, both maybe?" he replied, most likely as unsure as I was. He and I both skated toward the rest of the team, following suit and shooting at Goldberg. 

"No Gaffney?" Averman asked, clearly as puzzled as the rest of us. 

Charlie shook his head, "Nope."

"Might need to book a plane back to Maine then," Averman joked.

We dominated most of the game, I didn't want to get over-confident and end up losing but it felt like we were guaranteed a win after leading seven to one. Connie was on a high after scoring the seventh goal, the whole team was celebrating on the ice and on the bench.

We were entering the third period when I got out on the ice once again. I noticed after a few minutes of hard skating that Jesse was being ripped a new one by a guy in the crowd, he looked to be no older than us but had the maturity of a toddler by the childish insults he was throwing out.

"Jesse, just ignore him," I elbowed him and he just rolled his eyes with a shrug.

Jesse got the puck and was skating straight for the goal when a player from the other team checked him before he got the chance to shoot, after getting up Jesse went straight for the guy and shoved him. He then received two minutes in the penalty box where the same guy from the crowd was trash talking him again, Jesse must have said something pretty bad because the heckler soon disappeared.

Coach called Dwayne and I back to the bench where we were replaced by Portman and Fulton, they checked three of Trinidad's players making a clear way to the goal. Fulton passed the puck to Portman who shot it straight into the goal. They both threw their sticks and took bows.

Trinidad got the puck and faked Adam out, giving them a clear way toward the goal. Goldberg dove to save the puck too early and it went straight under him, the crowd erupted in cheers. I was secretly hoping for a small comeback, when the scores were closer there was so much adrenaline and it made the game so much more fun.

Connie got the puck in the Trinidad zone and passed it to Ken, he ducked down between one of the players legs behind the goal and came around the side scoring yet another goal. The buzzer went off and the game was over, we won nine to two.

"That wasn't a game, that was a statement!" Coach praised us all as we celebrated on the ice. 

Our first win, hopefully one of many.