Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

The second period was taking shape to be the same as the first; Philly was just as angry and wanting to try and beat us. It was looking to turn into a rough game; a lot more hits were coming from Philly as they tried to get an edge, anything they could.

The second period included a goal from Philly; Giroux slipped one past Flower, and then Sid scored as if to shove it in their faces that we were maintaining a two-point lead. That really had the flyers riled up, and as Jordan, Geno and I made our way out to center ice for the face-off Sid hollered at me.

“Better get another one Bates,” he smirked, loud enough for Read to hear and growl out some kind of reply.

Jordan and Geno seemed to determined that I would be the next one on our line to score; constantly setting me up with fantastic shot opportunities. And it would have been impossible for one of them to not go in. So when I managed my second goal of the night it hadn’t been much of a surprise to the two of them.

“There you go… feeling a hat-trick return?” Jordan asked, making me laugh.

“Hat trick would be good, no?” Geno asked, and I couldn’t stop the laughter.

“Jesus Murphy you two,” I shook my head, unable to wipe the grin off of my face as we went back to the bench.

The third period saw an extreme amount of frustration at one end of the ice and elation at the other. We were unstoppable, and the Flyers knew it. They hadn’t been able to make much of a difference in this game since that first goal.

“Here we go Bates; first career hat-trick coming up,” Jordan smirked, obviously enjoying the knowledge of winning a game before it was over.

“Pft, cocky much?” I asked, making him shrug.

As the whistle blew Philly changed their lines, and the thing I’d dreaded all night happened; Talbot’s line was on. I shot a look to Jordan, who nodded, and gave me a look that told me all I had to do was say the word and he’d drop the gloves with him so we didn’t have to face him.

I took a deep breath, taking my position and waiting for the puck to drop, ignoring the little chirps coming from Max’s mouth. Obviously while he’d felt bad, he didn’t feel bad enough about my gash to let off a bit.

Geno won the face off, sending the puck back to Kris while I took off forward. He sent a long pass up to me, and I passed it laterally to Jordan, who faked the shot back to me and I drilled it in, hoping for the best but not expecting to hear the horn signaling it went in.

“FUCK YEAH!” I yelled, and Jordan dog piled me into the boards. The rest of the guys followed and I could hear the swears and all else coming from the other team. I tuned them all out, unable to believe I’d just scored my first career hat-trick, until people were throwing hats out onto the ice and I skated a little circle, picking up a hat off of the ice to the cheers from the crowd.

“Consider us even,” I said to Max as we skated past, and he glared, spitting on the ice in front of my feet.

“I didn’t do it on purpose and you know it – if you’re gonna play hockey with the big dogs you gotta let it go and play,” he sneered. I stopped, turning to face him.

“What’s your problem with me Talbot?”

“What do you think?”

“Well then let’s settle this – I’m fucking done with your bullshit,” I said, shaking my gloves. His eyes lit up, and in an instant his gloves were off and he came at me. I hardly got them off and got my hands up with enough time to defend myself. He only got one good punch in before I managed to swing a few back at him; he wasn’t expecting my ambidextrous punches. I could throw a mean left hook as well as a mean right one.

“Get your fucking hands off of him!” I was shoved to the side and all I could see was a large form, knowing Jordan had stepped in.

“Jordan stop it,” I told him, knowing that I would never live it down if he started stepping in and ‘finishing’ my fights for me.

“No,” he snarled, and minutes later the refs pulled them apart. Jordan skated without complaint to the penalty box, and I was given a two-minute penalty for excessive roughness. I picked up my gloves and grabbed Jordan’s gloves before following him across the ice. I shoved his gloves at him and then sat down, determined not to look at him.

“What? What’d I do?” he asked, but I refused to answer him. I’d been worried about this, but I wasn’t sure that Jordan would do it. He had to treat me like a guy on the ice, he couldn’t treat me like a girl or his girlfriend, which he was obviously doing. I wasn’t going to be able to handle that.

“Cam—” I turned my head so I was facing away from him, pretending to be intently watching what was going on down the rink. He sighed, knowing something wasn’t right but didn’t push the issue any further.

When my two minutes was up I joined the rush; Sid firing me a long pass that lead to a breakaway and, somehow, another goal for me.

“Way to go Bates!” was the general congratulations from the bench as we skated past them, and then I sat off. It had been an incredible comeback game, but I was still a little frustrated. The last thing I wanted was for Jordan and I to get into an argument over something like this, but I needed him to know how I felt when he stepped in for me. I knew he meant well, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d overstepped the line.

When the final horn sounded, signaling the end of the game, the crowd in CONSOL went crazy, cheering at the top of their lungs as we made our way off of the ice. For the second time in my career as a Penguin I was the first star of the game, and I couldn’t help but grin when I saw kids out in the stands wearing my jersey.

“Great game kiddo,” Steve grinned, giving me a playful nougie as I walked by.

“Thanks Steve; same goes to you,” I returned, following him into the locker room. Dan kept his post-game speech short and sweet, letting all of us go and celebrate our fantastic win over our state rivals.

“Hey Bates; someone’s here to see you,” Steve said, and I walked out to the locker room to have Becka fling herself at me for a hug.

“Hey Becka!!” I laughed, and she let out a little squeal.

“Oh my GOD CAM! That was a freaking awesome game!” she gushed, and I laughed, shrugging.

“Jordan and Geno had a lot to do with that,” I insisted, and she just shrugged and hugged me again.

“I think you had a lot to do with that too Cam,” I gasped, turning around and seeing my Uncle Rob standing behind her with a mile-wide grin on his face.