A Miracle On Ice

Chapter 19 "January"

Today was the last practise before they went on the road again. Herb had scheduled seven games for their next trip, including games in Oklahoma, Huston, Wisconsin and Dallas.

"Pick your knees up! You gotta speed up, Coxy!" Herb's voice went through the rink again.

Like so often, they had split into two teams, skating and scoring, playing like they had never played without each other.

"Alright, stop!" Herb called, "Bring it in. I've gotta show you something on the board."

Knowing this by now, they all went up to the board, watching Herb draw a new play on there.

He dropped the pen and turned, "Johnson line. OC's gonna take the puck to Carls. Carls over to Johnson, who slides it to Mac and skates behind the goal. Then either Mac scores or he passes back to Carls for a slapshot or Johnson, who scores right there."

Carly raised her hand, "How am I supposed to shoot it from that spot? That's a shitty spot. I'll have like three guys in my way."

"Why? That too hard for you to do?" Herb provoked his daughter, knowing that she would go through fifty guys if she had to.

She just gave him a glare, "Piece of cake."

Then the girl skated towards her position, "Let's go, Coach. Or are we too fast for you?"

"Okay, then." Herb skated past them, waiting for them to take their positions, "Let's be idealistic, but let's also be practical."

Craig blew the whistle and Mark won the face off, sliding the puck into their defense, where OC accepted it.

"Let's go, OC!" Herb yelled, as the defensemen sped forward.

He passed the puck to Carly, who slid past Bah and Buzzy and slid the puck towards her boyfriend.

Mark accepted and sped towards the goal.

Right in front of the blue line he turned to provide Mac with the puck and Mac shot it into the net without hesitation.

The puck slid past Jimmy.

"Yeah!" they cheered, "Let's go, Mac!"

Herb nodded in approval and sent them off, saying, "We went to the well again and the water was colder and the water was deeper."

"What?" Carly questioned, but he was already skating towards his office.

"Weirdo." she muffled and shrugged, before heading towards the locker room.

On the next morning the whole team was picked up at 8 am to start their road trip. The scheldue read Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Huston, Tulsa again, University of Wisconsin, Fort Worth, Boston and finally Dallas.

Playing their game well, they were able to pull a couple of wins off, before they found themselves on their way to an exhibition game against the University of Wisconsin.

"You realize our dads hate each other, right?" the Brooks girl turned to the boy sitting next to her.

She had her head leaning on his shoulder and they were holding hands.

Mark smiled, giving her a kiss on the head, "Yeah, I know."

"But I love you." he whispered into her ear, causing Carly to shiver.

Carly looked up at him, going from stunned to a smirk, "You do now, do ya?"

Mark let out a laugh, "I do."

"Well, I love you too, Magic." she replied pulling him close for a kiss.

The whole bus started to whistle and yell out profanities, except for Herb, of course.

"It's a great day for hockey!" Carly laughed, "Right, baby Badger?"

"Hey, Elizabeth! Don't get regional!" Rizzo called from the back of the bus.

Everybody erputed in laughter while the girl turned around grinning, "Sorry, my bad!"

In the locker room Herb explained, "We're stepping closer to Lake Placid every day. Every game, every goal and every pass is getting us closer to the Olympics."

Everyone looked at him, "Now, I know as well as you do that there are still cuts to make, before we can go to Lake Placid and I advice you all to give me your very best every second of every day. We were damned if we did and we're damned if we didn't. So whatever we do, we do it for ourselves and for our country. Remember that. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Speeches like these were typical of Herb; he loved to talk in riddles and to make his players think. He loved to keep them fired up and most of all he loved to win. Which is exactly what they did.

While in Boston, a few of them went over to Rizzo's House for dinner. 

They had brought out all the tables they could find and his mom had made lasagna, meatballs, sausages and pasta for at least 30 people. Which is probably the amount of people they were. With Rizzo's girlfriend Donna, his parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins they made up a fair number of people. It was great spending time at Rizzo's house, they were a great family. 

Everybody was talking to each other and you had to shout to talk to the person next to you because it was so loud. But it was the most fun they've all had in a while.