"The Game" by Travis Sutherland of Saranac, Mich.
The whistle blew as the puck hit the ice to signal the start of the game. In a flash we were deep in their zone with the puck inside the net, with the score 1-0. We lined up for a faceoff. "Thud," I was thrown backward because one of their players slammed into me and I got a headache, so I went off the ice. When I got back on the ice it was the second period and we were in our zone.
There was five minutes left in the second period and we had the puck in our zone. Tate shot the puck up the boards to me, and I took off toward center ice. I quickly turned to evade colliding into one of their players, and lightly tapped the puck through one of their player's skates and there was no one but the goalie and everyone behind me to stop me from scoring. One of them hit my stick with their stick and I lost the puck and I tripped and almost slid into the net. But I stopped myself with my skates and stood up as the puck left Brady's stick and went straight into their net.
We lined up for a faceoff. The puck shot away from the center and I took the puck, passed to left wing. Eli took the puck into their zone, but they checked him, but before they checked him, he got the puck to Hayden. Hayden caught it and he went to the goal and shot it at the net. The puck whizzed past my head, it was so close to my head that I could hear it soar through the air. Their goalie moved his hands so fast that I could barely see it and caught the puck in midair and dropped it and passed it to his teammates.
I started to think that I was skating through molasses. I wanted to take a long nap, I was so weary. I had to find my last reserved of energy. "Thud," I was slammed against the boards. I crumpled to the ground. I got up and raced and stole the puck from their team. Before they knew it, I was in their end with the puck sailing at the [goal], and I scored our last goal of the game. But the game wasn't over yet.
I soon noticed we weren't keeping any pressure on the other team. We were also slowing down. One of their players got out of his zone, our team had to get back fast or he might score a goal. We didn't get back fast enough and he scored a goal. It was now my shift. When I got onto the ice, our team was in our own zone, right before the whistle blew, they scored another goal that tied us up 3-3 as the final score.