Tyler P.

Goal

"Can we go yet?" I whined as I took another shot, dreaming of scoring in the real
game. ¨Not yet,” my dad replied,¨go and check your water bottle while you wait.¨

I walked into the kitchen and grabbed my bottle and shook it to see if there was
anything left from last night´s practice. No sound of swishiness, so I went over to the
sink to fill it up. I turned the sink on and filled it up.

I looked out the window to see the first frost of the year. Finally my bottle was filled. I
heard my dad say,¨Let's go.¨ so I got into the car and we were on our way to Liam's
house.

About 2 minutes later we arrived to see them waiting in their driveway. We parked
the car and got out. My dad talked with my uncle, while I put Liam's hockey equipment
next to mine in my dad's trunk.¨Thank you,¨ Liam said. I nodded my head back. I
thought of all the times we've helped each other out.

After a little more time talking to my cousin Liam and my uncle, we got into the car and
went to the rink. It took about an hour to get there, but when we did, we got straight to
work by doing some off-ice.

But first we needed a nice area to do it. ¨Over there!¨ I exclaimed, pointing to the
empty back of the driveway. Then, we got to work. First we did squats and push-ups.
Then did sprints and Cherokees.

“Good job,” my dad complimented, as I ran to the locker room in the freezing rink.
“Hey, guys,” I said as I ran in. “Hi,” some voices replied. I went over to my hockey bag
and started to pull out my equipment and put it on, then got my skates tied up and
waited near the glass until the Zamboni got off.

Right when I looked out onto the ice, the rest of the team came pouring out of the
locker room, yelling and screaming. I heard someone say,”Coach says we can get on,”
so I raced onto the ice for warm ups and started to skate around the circles, pivoting
backwards at the bottom.

”Pucks!” screamed coach, as the black saucer-like pieces of rubber poured onto the
ice. We all got in line to take shots on John and Jake, our goalies. I missed one of my
shots and then told myself not to miss another. Then I made the other three.

A couple minutes later, it was my shift and we lined up for the face-off. Wesley, our
center, won it to the defense and they passed it to Liam. Liam was on a straight away
and shot. Off the goalie’s pads. Wesley got it and took a shot, and his went off the
goalie’s pads! I was the next one coming down, but then I thought of all the times I’ve
practiced, the times at home and in practice. Then I snapped out of it, reeled into a
slap shot position, and shot. It felt like slow-motion for a second. I saw the puck flying
in mid-air, and the goalie shifting into position. The puck was halfway across the
distance `between me and the goal. It made it all the way into the goal. I scored!!! My
first goal of the season!

Dad must be so proud, I thought, and wait ‘till mom hears about it.