Page 107 of The Callahan Effect

The championship suddenly felt close enough to touch.

I found myself glancing repeatedly toward the game clock.

Ten minutes remained.

Ten minutes separated Evergreen from another national title.

***

MASON

The scoreboard hanging above center ice read Evergreen 3, Lake Superior 1.

Ten minutes.

That was all that separated us from another national championship.

Ten minutes sounded insignificant until you had to play them.

Coach had warned us before the third period that the final ten minutes of any championship game were unlike anything else in hockey. Teams stopped playing systems and started playing desperation. Players blocked shots with every part of their bodies, shortened every shift, and emptied whatever remained in the tank because nobody wanted to wake up the following morning wondering whether they'd had one more effort left to give.

He'd been absolutely right.

Lake Superior attacked with everything they had.

Their defensemen pinched relentlessly, forcing our wingers deeper into the defensive zone while their forwards crashed Oscar's crease looking for rebounds and loose pucks. Every battle along the boards lasted a little longer than the one before it. Every clearance became precious. Every whistle offered another chance to draw breath before the next wave arrived.

Ryan skated past me as we waited for another defensive-zone faceoff.

"They're gambling."

I nodded.

"They have to."

"If we stay patient, they'll give us something."

That had been our identity all season—Patience.

Coach had preached it from the first practice in September until this very night. We never chased games. We never forced plays that weren't there. We trusted our structure because sooner or later opponents became frustrated enough to make mistakes.

Lake Superior was getting close.

The puck dropped and chaos erupted immediately.

Ryan tied up their center long enough for Luca to sweep the puck behind our net where Ethan collected it before reversing direction and feeding Connor curling toward the right boards. Connor banked the puck safely into the neutral zone, forcing the Mariners to regroup instead of attacking with speed.

The forty seconds that followed felt like forty minutes.

Every player in green defended with complete commitment. Defensemen sacrificed their bodies to block shooting lanes. Ryan won another battle along the wall before chipping the puck safely beyond the blue line. Luca outraced one defender long enough to burn another twenty seconds before dumping it deep and changing with the rest of us.

Coach never stopped talking.

"Good change."

"Stay above them."

"Nothing through the middle."