A Miracle On Ice

Family Skate

"Making it to the medal round was our goal from day one, so we feel real good about what we've accomplished so far.", Herb spoke into the microphone.

"Herb! Herb!", another reporter called out: "Still no chance we can talk with any of your players?"

Herb just nodded his head: "Still no chance."

"How do you respond to those who feel you do this to keep the spotlight on yourself?", the snarky reporter guy, Mike, asked with a pleased look on his face.

Herb just gave him a smirk.

"Loose puck. Kiessling across to Kretschmer. Up to Philipp. He's run hard into the boards by Strobel. Huge hit. Ramsey has it, it up to Verchota. Verchota the blue line. up. He scores! Phil puts it past Sutner to put the up four to two with 15:43 to play here in the period.", Al Michaels commented the US-West Germany game: "We'll be with this one right to the end."

"The pairings for the medal round are as follows. The United States will play the Soviet Union first game tomorrow.", Walter stated at their next press conference: "Sweden and Finland in the second game. The face-off for the US-Soviet game is 1700 hours. Now, if you have any questions, we have the US assistant coach, Craig Patrick."

There was a second of silence before the reporters started yelling: "Patrick! Craig Patrick! Coach Patrick! Patrick!"

"Where's Herb Brooks?", the first question sounded: "How come he's not here today?"

Craig answered: "Herb is out preparing for tomorrow's game."

As soon as he stopped talking everybody's hands shot into the air again: "Craig! Craig!"

Meanwhile Herb was sitting on a bench in front of a frozen pond that was opened to public skating.

"Hi, Daddy.", Kelly smiled at him when she skated past her father. He returned her smile.

Next, Patti walked towards him holding two steaming cups: "There we go."

She sat down next to him: "There was no whipped cream."

"Hey, honey. That's all right.", Herb took the cup from her with a thankful look on his face.

As he took a sip Patti noticed that something was off: "What?"

"What?", she asked again.

Herb looked at her: "I got a telegram from a lady in Texas today. You know what it said? 'Beat those commie bastards.'", he told her.

Patti gave him a stunned yet amused look: "Wow."

"We're playing a hockey game against the greatest team in the world, maybe the best that's ever played this game.", he stated: "Why can't we just leave it at that?"

Patti smiled: "This is more than a hockey game to a lot of people."

Herb agreed: "Yeah, I keep going through them all. Johnson on Mikhailov. Broten on Petrov. Pav against whoever-ov.", he started.

"We just...We don't match up, Patti.", he finished.

Patti took a sip from her cup and turned towards her husband: "You might want to skip that when you talk to the boys tomorrow."

They sat in silence for a while watching their kids.

Kelly and Danny were skating together, him skating cirles around her to Kelly's annoyance.

"Stop it, duchebag!", she yelled at him trying to hit him.

Danny really enjoyed tormenting her as he skated just a little further away whenever she tried to get him. 

Ally was skating with her boyfriend Jacob and Tommy was skating with Carly and Mark, who were allowed to skate for half an hour. Herb didn't want them to get hurt before the big game.

"You two ready to get your ass beat tomorrow.", Tommy snarkily mocked.

Mark chuckled, shaking his head at the boy.

Carly had a different approach: "You better watch that I don't beat your ass along with theirs."

Tommy laughed skating away: "Yeah, right!"

"Herb. Herb.", Patti got his attention: "There's no disgrace in losing to this team."

"I know.", he replied.

She continued: "The important thing is you got this far."

Herb nodded his head: "The important thing is those 20 boys and our girl knowing in 20 years they didn't leave anything on the table. That they played their hearts out. That's the important thing.", he stated.

Later that night Carly found herself unable to sleep. After rolling around in her bed for half an hour she diecided to get up and go outside.

There was a bench in front of their place where she sat with a big blanket wrapped around her body.

"Hey, what are you doing?", a familiar voice asked behind her.

Carly immediately knew who it belonged to: "I just wanted to get some air."

Mark Johnson sat down next to her: "Care if I join ya?"

"You can always join me, Magic.", she smirked.

He laughed.

"What are you thinking about?", he asked his girlfriend.

She shrugged: "It's still hard to believe were here."

He nodded in approvement: "Yeah, I get it. It's crazy, isn't it?"

"After everything with the Herbies, the yelling, the time we all spent together.", she listed: "This really is the time of our lives."

"Hard to believe it's actually there.", Mark agreed.

The girl started smiling t herself.

"What is it?", Mark asked.

"As a kid I just wanted to play hockey cuz it made me feel good, you know? The energy, the adrenaline, the air brushing against your face, even the hitting made me feel alive.", she stated.

"Yeah, same here.", he nodded: "And now we really have a shot to do something here. We're playing for our entire country."

"Who would have thought?", Craly grinned at him.

Mark grinned back: "I sure wouldn't have."

"Me neither but I'm grateful that I'm here and that I get to share this experience with the team...with you", she said: "I'm so glad I met you, Mark."

The boy smiled at her fondly taking her hand in his: "I'm so glad I met you too, Carly."

They sat there for a while longer when Carly said: "Let's beat their asses."

Mark laughed at that: "Let's get some sleep first, okay?"

Then they went back inside.