The crowd groans.
Shaw doesn’t react. Just circles away and glides back toward the bench like nothing happened.
She steps back beside me.
“First big shootout?”
She glances over.
“Maybe.”
I shrug. “I missed my first ever penalty shot.”
That earns the smallest smile.
The shootout continues.
Another save.
Another miss.
Back and forth.
Suddenly the scoreboard shows what we all know.
Sudden death.
The next goal wins.
Calloway scans the bench then he points down the line.
“Chen.”
The entire bench freezes.
Our goalie looks up.
“You serious?”
“Go.”
Chen skates out slowly, like he’s heading to a casual warm-up drill instead of deciding the game.
The arena buzzes with confused excitement.
The goalie at the other end clearly has no idea what to expect either.
Chen picks up the puck at center ice.
He skates in almost lazily.
Then, at the last second, he flicks a quick wrist shot highglove side.
The puck snaps into the net.
Our bench erupts.
Russo tackles Chen near the crease while the rest of us pile in.
