Mutant Hockey League, Fish, Game #47

It was the first game since the biggest trade in Fish history. The crowd was set as the team played at home. The new goalies and players came on the rink, and the crowd erupted in applause. Harry Bond, the coach, remarked before the game that he was incredibly happy and that his team had worked hard to practice with each other before the game started. The puck dropped and they were on their way.

In the first period, the Egrets scored first, with a goal at 2:59 by Nik, his 11th. At 4:13, Frederik scored, his 8th, making it 2-0 Egrets. At 10:20 though, Kyle scored, his 68th, bringing the difference to 2-1. At 11:50, Jussi got called for hooking, by the Fish were not able to convert. At 17:12, Blake scored, his 32nd, tying the game up at 2! Tuomo and Brad got into a fight shortly afterward. Brooks scored, his 7th, at 18:13 and the Fish had the lead at 3-2! John scored next, his 6th, making it 4-2 Fish! The Fish took 20 shots and converted 4 times, while the Egrets shot 14 times, scoring twice. Harry Bond told his team that he was “very proud” of the way they had been performing thus far at the intermission.

In the second period, at 3:03, Frederick scored his second goal of the game, his 9th, making the score 4-3. Then, at 6:00, Ray scored, his 14th, making it tied at 4! Mark responded quickly though with a goal at 6:37, his 20th, and gave the Fish back their lead. At 8:40, Jere of the Egrets got called for hooking. At 15:32, however, Martin scored, his 19th, tying the game again, this time at 5! At the end, the Egrets scored 3 goals and the Fish scored 1 goal. The Fish took 20 shots, matching last period’s shots. The Egrets also matched their previous period, shooting 14 times. The following is an excerpt from a rare Harry Bond speech:

“Guys, we can play better than this. You do NOT give up a 2-goal lead in the course of a period. It just does not happen! This is playing like poop. This is really damn stupid! I made all these moves, and the defense makes me look like a laughingstock. We need to play our game. We’ve been playing THEIR game the last 3 games. We play our game, we win. It’s that simple.”

The third period started quickly. T.J. Scored at 3:29, his 4th, giving the Fish a 6-5 lead! At 7:09, Jean scored, hist 1st of the season, tying the game up at 6! At 8:21, Slava scored, his 41st, giving the Fish a 7-6 lead! At 18:18, the Egrets tied the game up, thanks to a goal by Jere’s 12th goal on the season! he period ended tied, so it was off to overtime! The Egrets took 12 shots and scored twice, and the Fish took 19 shots and scored twice. The coach admonished his team, wishing they played better in OT.

Overtime began with the puck drop. Not even 1 minute into the period, Brad of the Egrets scored, and the game was over! Final score was 8-7, Egrets. Harry Bond was grilled by the press in the aftermath. “We’ll play better.” He said. “I know we can.”