Power Play - Brittney Mulliner Page 0,22

Storm.

He started our chant, and Derek stood to lead us out.

I sucked in a breath through my nose and released it slowly through my mouth. We were ready for this. The lights were brighter, the crowd louder, and the energy amped up. I spotted more of our jerseys tonight and purposely didn’t try to find the Pride. Taylor might be with them, but it was better not to know. It didn’t matter. Her presence wouldn’t change anything, other than distracting me.

Carmen never entered my mind during games. Even the nights I made sure there were tickets for her. Why then, was Taylor such a temptation?

“Dumoulin!” Noah shouted, and I took my warm-up shot at Olli without thinking. He blocked it, and I skated to the back of the line.

No more. I shook my head and locked everything that didn’t matter to this game back in the vault. I ran through the new plays in my mind. Vaughn preferred shooting from the right. His sweet spot was just a few feet above the edge of the goalie’s crease. So I needed to make sure he could get close enough.

The game started, and Hartman led the first line onto the ice. He won the faceoff, and Erik took off toward the Storm’s goal. My eyes followed the puck from Erik to Reese to Noah to Hartman. I knew the play, but their speed was something I’d never seen before. It was like they were playing in fast-forward. The guys started cheering, slamming their sticks against the board. If we could keep up this energy, we’d tire the Storm out by the second period. They’d be too slow to hurt any of us.

Hartman signaled for the line change, and the second line hit the ice like they were headed into battle.

Vaughn scooted closer to me to make room for the first line to rest. “Ready?”

I nodded while controlling my breathing. I was too excited, and I needed to calm down, make sure my head was clear. We couldn’t afford any mistakes, no missed passes or bad shots. I needed to be completely focused. If something did go wrong, it would not be on me.

It was time. I threw my legs over the board and waited for the guys to come in before jumping onto the ice. The buzz from the audience and the fast-paced nature of the game filled my body. Vaughn called out the play, and I followed by mere muscle memory. Grant passed me the puck, and I stopped suddenly, spun, and shot it to Jones. He slapped it to Vaughn a breath before getting slammed into the boards. I watched long enough to know he was fine before skating toward the Storm’s goal. Another bang sounded, and I checked over my shoulder to see Grant down with one of their defensemen standing over him. Vaughn was in front of me. He needed me on his right, so I told myself Grant was fine and moved into position.

BANG!

Vaughn had been about to shoot on the goal when a player slammed into him from behind. It was a bad hit, and the refs called it.

I took a deep breath as we moved to the faceoff. Vaughn won and sent the puck behind him to Grant. Things continued to escalate from there. Shoving and checking grew more aggressive. I took a few bad hits, only one of them was called though.

By the middle of the second period, we were tiring out. We were beaten up and covering any injuries to keep from being taken out of the game. I noticed Reese limping and Colin favoring his left shoulder, turning away to protect it from getting hit whenever someone was close.

I wasn’t sure how much more of this we could take. Through the end of the game, sure, but the series wasn’t close to being over. No matter what, we would have two more games after this. That was only if the same team continued to win without interruption. Worst case, we had four more games against them.

The long-term effect of that worried me. Nikolai was already out for three to six months, which could roll into next season. How many others would fall victim?

We made it through the second period without anyone being taken off the ice on a stretcher. No, that didn’t happen until five minutes into the third.

The crack was so loud. Distinct over the roaring crowd. The second Hartman’s body hit the ground everything went silent. No music, no cheering,