Rebel Power Play by David Skuy Page A

“I’ll deliver the message.”
    They were interrupted by Dunn telling everyone to be quiet.
    “Eyes front and centre, boys. Time to get serious. I wanna go over our forechecking. We’re going to be the most aggressive team in the league, slam some bodies, force turnovers, and intimidate. That’s Hawks hockey. So listen up and learn. First line will start, with Richard and Samuel on D.”
    What a contrast to Coach Hilton, Charlie thought, as he listened to Dunn drone on for the next twenty minutes. Hilton simplified the game, explaining everything so clearly that you knew exactly what to do. Dunn did the opposite. The whiteboard was soon covered in a confusing mass of lines, dots, and arrows going every which way, and Charlie had a hard time making sense of any of it. He stopped listening after five minutes — and wondered if Julia had really said hi.

8

TRIPLE-A FRAY
    The referee dropped the puck. The Tornadoes centre easily won the draw to his right defenceman, who one-timed the puck across the ice to his defence partner. Zachary pressured, and the defenceman banked it off the boards.
    “Be there, Mike,” Charlie said, half-aloud. Centre was supposed to cover that zone. Instead, Mike stayed in the middle. The Tornadoes left winger picked it up on the fly and headed towards the Hawks’ net.
    At the blue line, the winger faked inside and swerved to the outside. Richard tried to stand him up; Charlie knew he prided himself on making big hits. The inside move caused him to lose his balance, however, and the player sidestepped the intended bone-crusher. Samuel turned to give chase, only to get tangled up with his own skates and fall. The winger was in alone. Pudge had covered his winger, and was too far away to cut him off. Simon came way out of his net — too far for Charlie’s liking. A quick move and he wouldn’t be able to get back. Which is exactly what happened.
    The Tornadoes attacker faked inside, and then cut hard to his forehand. The move froze Simon. As a lastresort, he threw out a poke check — and missed by a mile. That left a wide open net for a pathetically easy goal. Charlie would have laughed if it hadn’t been against his own team. The game was only ten seconds old and the Hawks looked like novices.
    “No worries, Mikey,” Dunn said, clapping a few times. “Bad goal. The jitters are out. Get it back for us.”
    Mike promptly lost the draw again. This time he charged wildly after the puck. Zachary stayed back — smart thinking, as it turned out, because Mike went in too fast and missed the hit. The defenceman surged into the space vacated by Mike, gained the red line, and before Zachary could stop him fired the puck into the corner. Richard lumbered after it. The left winger beat him to it, and Richard tried another massive hit. This time only the boards felt it. He fell to the ice as the Tornadoes’ forechecker gathered the puck.
    Zachary and Pudge covered the pointmen. Mike was way out of position, hovering up near the blue line calling for the puck. The slot was totally exposed. The right winger saw he was uncovered, and raced to the open slot. His linemate fed him a sweet pass from the corner. Samuel dropped to his knees to block a shot that never came. The winger slipped it smartly to his centre, who one-timed it past a startled Simon.
    Two goals in twenty seconds. Charlie wanted to get back on the bus.
    “I think Sean was right about the score,” Jonathon said in his ear, “except it’ll be 10–0 for them.”
    “What’s going on?” Charlie heard Mike yell on the ice. “This is garbage. You guys aren’t doing anything,” he said to Richard and Samuel.
    Dunn kept Mike’s line out. This time the Tornadoes centre pushed the puck through Mike’s feet, slipping by to gather it up. Zachary anticipated Mike losing the draw and cut him off, flipping the puck back to Richard. He cut to the boards, expecting a return pass. Whether he was unnerved by the goals, or didn’t