The Ice Rink

The Ice Rink

Ice hockey was a big part of my life for 9 years.  I would spend countless hours every week practicing or playing in games.  I’ve had some great memories on the Ice. I remember waking up early on Saturday mornings to go to the rink for a game. It wasn’t always easy but it was fun.

Beep, beep, beep, beep!! My alarm went of at 6:30 AM. I thought to myself, it’s a weekend, can’t I just sleep a little longer.  But I knew I had to get up because I had to get to the game.  I pulled myself out of bed and went downstairs. I ate something small to give me a boost of energy early in the morning. I went back upstairs to my closet and grabbed my hockey bag and my sticks.  It all had to weigh at least 30 pounds, and it was even worse since it was so early.  I lugged my stuff out to the car and threw it in the trunk.  By this time my dad had woken up.  We piled into the car and drove to the rink.  He dropped me off about 30 minutes before the game.  I walked into the locker room and sat down on the bench.  I was too tired to start getting ready. I sat in a daze for a good five minutes while my teammates started to arrive. As people showed up, the energy picked up.  I finally started to get ready; I put on all my equipment. My shin pads, my socks, my pants, my skates, my shoulder pads, my elbow pads, my jersey, and finally my helmet and gloves.  As every hockey player knows, it takes a lot of time to get ready to play.  Our coach walked in and gave us his usual pre-game speech.  He told us to play hard, and leave it all on the ice. He knew just as well as we did that this game would be a cake walk.  We were one of the top teams in the league and had beat the other team several times before.  When it was time, we got up and walk out to the ice.  When we got on we skated around our half of the ice for a bit to warm up.  I was the team captain so it was my responsibility to lead warm ups.  We started with some cross ice sprits to get our legs working.  Then the coach put out the pucks and we started our passing drill.  It went just as it always did. After warm ups we gathered around the net and I gave a quick motivational speech.  Basically repeating what our coach said in the locker room. I liked being our team’s captain but I never was good at the speeches and leading.  I guess they looked up to me because I was one the oldest players.  After my quick speech we skated to the bench and the coach gave us the starting line.  I was up first at left wing.  It was no surprise; I usually ended up on the first line.  We lined up at center ice for the puck drop. I was usually one of the dirtier players one the ice, and this game was no different. At the drop I kicked the back of the skate of the player across from me. This knocked him a little off balance.  I had to let them know not to mess with me right off the bat.  For me it was important to come out strong on my first few shifts.  I was the team’s big hitter. Since I was bigger then most of the guys on the ice it wasn’t too hard.  The game went as expected. We basically controlled the game from the start.  We got an early goal and held our lead for most of the game.  Our goalie was really good and kept us in games even if the rest of the team was doing poorly.  We held a one to zero lead through the second period. But in the third period the other team came out strong and got a goal.  The score was even and we were all exhausted.  We knew we would have to dig deep and score another goal.  We picked up our game at that point. Our passing go smoother and our plays flowed better. We started to get shot after shot and we were controlling their end of the ice.  But nothing was getting past this goalie. He was a big guy and got easily take up the net. Time was running out and we were sill tied.  But then when there were about three minutes left, we got another break. We passed the puck up the side of the ice and across to a player breaking through the middle. It was a one on one, just the defender and our guy. The offender swerve to the right and ripped a shot to the top corner. It went right past the defender and right over the shoulder of the goalie. We did it! We score a game winning goal.  But we couldn’t let down now, we still had a couple minutes to kill.  We fought to the very last second and pulled out a win. It was one of the most exciting games I had ever been a part of, and it was the last game I would play in.  It was the end of the season and I was going to be giving up hockey when it was over.  I loved hockey and I was fairly good at it, but I wanted to do more with theatre. Music and theatre are my passions and I had to give up hockey to pursue them.