The Three C's

We all cursed and watched as Jamie Benn shot the puck past Quick and hit the back of the net less than two minutes into the second period. The Canadians were cheering, the American’s were cursing, I looked up towards the section where my family was sitting to see my Mom waving an American flag.

‘…We can do this…’ I thought as I skated on the ice with Kessel, Pat, Orpik and Suter. We were against Jon’s line and I positioned myself as Kessel prepared for the faceoff.

Throughout the whole minute shift that we were on the ice, we managed to keep the puck in the Canadian zone, which was good. However, twice I passed the puck to Pat, for him to make a shot, and he hit the post both times. We all knew that he was off his game; I was trying to get him back on his game so that critics didn’t blame him if we lost.

The rest of the period was scoreless, three minutes until the end of the second, I was back on the ice, Crosby got a breakaway and I cursed and pushed my blades into the ice. I was sure that if he got to the next, he was going to score. Sidney shot the puck and it looked like it was going left, so Quick leaned left, the puck bounced off of him and Sidney grabbed the puck again. The others had caught up and now the puck was being passed back and forth between the Canadians.
Corey Perry was standing in front of Quick blocking his view, I saw Kunitz with the puck and he shot it towards the net. I looked at Quick, he was looking, that puck was going to go into the net. I pressed my blades into the ice got all up in Quick’s zone and stood behind him, feeling the frozen rubber puck hit me right in my stomach. When the puck touched the ice, Quick snatched it up in his glove and the ref called the whistle.

“Maggie,” I heard and looked up to see Quick looking at me, “You all right?”

“Yeah,” I groaned an rubbed my sore stomach, ‘…Pretty sure he busted a rib on that hit…’ I thought and took a deep breath, “I’ll leave the goaltending to you though- You’ve got the padding for it.”

He chuckled and patted my shoulder, “Thanks for saving that- Perry was in my way, I couldn’t see.”

“I figured,” I said as I patted Quick’s chest and skated over towards the bench, my teammates coming up to me and asking if I was all right and telling me good job for blocking it.

“Nice work, Mags- Where does it hurt?” Doc asked as I climbed over the boards.

“I’m all right, it just stings,” I said and he looked at me, “Really, I’m all right.”

“You sure?” Coach asked and I nodded my head, “All right.”

The clock clicked to zero and the second period was over, the score was one to zero, Canada and all of us were thinking the same thing, we needed to step our game up. Throughout our time in the locker room, Coach was trying to give us advice on how to handle some of the guys on the ice.

When the second intermission was over and we were back on the ice, everyone’s mind on set on getting one goal, we needed to get one goal to tie the game, and then we’d work on the next. Though, halfway through the third, things weren’t going our way, no one scored, but the puck has barely been down in the Canadian zone. Everyone was crowding Quick and at that point, it was only a matter of time before they got another goal.

Eleven minutes into the third, I was on the ice, I managed to steal the puck and headed towards Carey Price, I was about to shoot the puck when I the puck was stolen from me, I saw that Jon had stole it. I growled and turned around to chase after him when a body slammed into mine and I hit the ice hard. I groaned and rolled onto my stomach and looked up to see a red jersey on the ice as well.

“What happened?” he groaned and I saw the number ‘10’.

“Sharpie,” I growled and he looked at me and groaned.

“I didn’t do it on purpose, I wasn’t lookin’,” he mumbled and we both pushed ourselves off of the ice.

I was a little shaky to stand, but I did and saw my teammates around us, both team Docs were coming out, Sharp was being looked at and I guess I had a cut on my nose, so Doc was cleaning it. I held my stomach, the same place where I was kicked, hit by the puck and now landed roughly on the ice.

‘…I need a spa date…’ I thought about how I put my body through so much work.

There were nine minutes left in the game and I sat through all of them, Coach wouldn’t let me back on the ice because he could see the pained look in my eyes, but knew I was too stubborn to do anything. With forty seconds left in the game, the score still one to zero; I panicked, thinking for sure that Canada was going to win. However, our whole bench jumped up with happiness when Captain America scored a goal and tied the game at one.

The horn sounded and we got a little break before we went into overtime, something that we were all dreading because this was what happened in 2010. I kept telling myself that no one let Crosby touch the puck; we couldn’t let them anywhere near Quick.

The ice was clean and I looked at Coach, “Let me on the ice,” I said and he shook his head, “Coach, please!”

“Maggie, you’re hurt-“

“I’m well enough to play, please!” I begged and he looked at me and then at Doc, he nodded his head and I smiled.

“Marshall, Kessel, Van Riemsdyk, Suter, Orpik,” Coach called off and I smiled and climbed over the bench.

“Mags,” I turned and saw Praise, he skated over to me, “Left bottom pocket, he tends to leave a little space open- You need to shoot it perfectly though.”

I looked at my Captain and nodded my head, turning around and heading onto the ice, Jon, Sharp and Jeff Carter were on the ice for Canada. Kessel faced off against Jon and lost and I cursed when Carter headed for Quick. He shot the puck and my stomach dropped, but I let out a breath when it bounced off of Quick and Van Riemsdyk quickly picked it up, passed it to Suter, who passed it to me and I headed down the ice.

Carter and Drew Doughty came at me and I jumped up, passing the puck back to Kessel and missing their hit. The ref blew the whistle for offside and I sighed and watched as Crosby, Kunitz and Getzlaf replaced Jon, Sharp and Carter.

‘…This is it…’ I thought as Kessel wanted me to face off against Sid, I looked at him like he was crazy, I sucked at face offs and Sidney knew that. I bent down and looked at Sidney, he had his typical serious look on his face, ‘…This is it. Mikey, I wish you were here, I need you…’ I thought as I had the necklace in my mouth, ‘…I wish you were here to have my six…’

We were in the middle of our first game against the Flyers since they had Kokorin on their team. He was a scary big guy that no one liked, the guy was targeting me and my teammates were getting angry, especially my brother.

“He’s gunna come at you from behind,” Mike said as he skated up next to me as we prepared for another faceoff, “Be prepared for him.”

“I will, don’t you worry,” I said and Mike looked at me, “You got my six?”

“I’ve always got your six, Mags.”

‘…I need you Mikey…’ I thought as the ref came over, he held the puck out, Sidney and I just looked at each other and as soon as that ref released the puck, it hit the ice and I threw my stick around like a mad woman.

I don’t know who won the faceoff, I just knew that someone had the puck; I turned and saw that Kunitz had the puck, but it was scooped up by Kessel and shot back towards me. The puck hit my stick and I turned around and looked at Price, he looked like he was ready for me. I took a deep breath and charged, I passed the puck to Orpik, he passed it to Suter, who shot it back towards Kessel, who shot it to me just as I got to the net. Without even stopping, without even looking back, I slipped that puck into the left corner pocket and watched it pass the blue line. The siren sounded and I threw my arms in the air and screamed out of excitement. I skated around the net, fell to my knees and I looked up.

“Thank you Mikey,” I breathed before jumping up and charging down the ice towards Quick. I got to him and jumped him, we both fell to the ice, “You’re the best fuckin’ goalie! You we’re awesome! You did it, Quickie! You fuckin’ did it!”

“No Mags, you fuckin’ did it!” he laughed as he hugged me and we both were dog piled by our teammates.

The guys pulled me up and we were screaming and laughing, some crying, me crying. I found Pat in the crowd and he pulled me into him and pressed his lips onto mine. I smiled brightly and wrapped my arms around him and when he pulled back, we smiled brightly at each other before I was pulled away to hug each and every teammate. I looked over towards the bench and saw Coach come out; I skated over towards him and hugged him.

“You did it, Coach! Your first Olympics and gold!” I yelled and he laughed and patted my shoulders.

“Seems like we’re always going to make a pretty good team, Marshall,” he said and I smiled brightly and nodded my head, “Go celebrate!” I turned around and headed back towards my teammates and jumped onto Oshie and Quick, still cheering about our win.

I looked over towards the other side of the ice, the Canadians looked disappointed and surprised that they lost. I sighed and headed over towards them, knowing that my teammates were behind me. Captain Canada was first, my friend, my Captain in the NHL.

“Sorry Sid,” I said and he just nodded his head, instead of shaking my hand, he pulled me into a hug and patted my shoulder.

“Mikey would be proud,” he said and gave me a small smile and returned it, knowing that my eyes were tearing up.

“Thanks Sid,” I breathed and he nodded his head and I continued on down the line, shaking hands or hugging each player. When it finally came to Jon, Sharp and Duncan, I sighed and hugged each of them, I know they were sad about not winning gold, we would be too if we had lost. I finally got to the end of the line and saw Price, he just looked at me and shook his head.

“I don’t know how you did it, Marshall,” he said and patted my shoulder, “But good job, you’re an amazing player.”

“Thanks, you an awesome goalie- Don’t tell Quickie I said that,” I said and he gave me a small chuckle and nodded his head, I patted his back and shook the Canadian staffs’ hands and then threw my hands up towards the fans, who were cheering loudly. Soon I was joined by my teammates and we celebrated waiting for the red carpet to come out so that we could get what we all came here to win, ‘…I did it, Mikey! I did it! I wish you were here!...’