29th of April 1997

29th of April 1997, the game that counts. My lungs were dry and there was two minuets left in the 3rd. I was the next to go out, Chris was on my left and coach was on my right. We're down by three and this team had been the only one to beat us this year, some of the boys were down on us and didn't want to finish the game strong. The whistle blue on an icing call and I got sent out. The coach called us over to the bench he said we're going to pull the goalie so on the way to the face-off, Colin and I agreed we needed one before we empted the net. There was 1:39 left, we're still down by three and the face-off was in our zone. We won the draw and it leaped back to my stick. I rushed to my left but under control, I looked up the ice and saw Colin busting across the middle. I put it hard up off the glass, and then down onto his stick, it was one on one and Colin was shiftily. He dropped his shoulder left and jerked back, right to the middle it was now just him and the goalie. Colin went in and put it right over the blocker, there was 1:01 left. It was now 4-2 and then we went with the empty net, the face off was at center and we won it straight back, the winger came straight at me and I put it over to my partner. He put it past the other teams defenseman up to our winger. Two on one and coming down with speed, one quick pass across the middle. Just fluttering over the opponents stick on to Denis' blade, then straight to the back of the net! It's now 4-3 and there is 0:36 seconds left. We line up, the same as last time. We're so close! We know we need another goal so we push; the center goes straight to the net, the winger sweeps through the middle. We set a screen and take the shot and it hits off a stick. It's going toward the goalie's glove it hits the tip and then the ice, it was bouncing! The goalie looks back, he doesn't know where the puck is, it rolled over the line! It's 4-4 and there is 0:11 seconds left. The puck was dropped and time expires, we're going to overtime.
    We're flying high, and the other team was demoralized. We haven't even beaten them yet and now they are the ones not skating. They were slow and we zipped around the ice, but then we got a penalty, it is four on three and we kill it off. I burst from the box and call for it long, it comes squirting up the ice and I got it. I'm going in all alone, I made eye contact with the goalie and I could see the fear and I knew I had it. I went left and my stick went right, he fallowed my body and missed the puck, it went in! Now I can tell mom we're going to the finals.

--Liam