hands were tucked into his pockets His black hair swooped over his forehead Annie’s heart skipped a beat Oh man I didn’t realize Carter would be watching me play Of course it was pretty obvious why Carter was at the game when Annie thought about it His dad was the team’s new coach the reason Carter had transferred here Annie took a deep breath and muttered to herself No distractions Focus The ref blew his whistle and dropped the puck The game was officially underway Ruby slashed at the puck knocking it back to the Grizzlies left wing Naya Jessen She brought the puck across the blue line and into the attacking zone 6
The Grizzlies opponents the Rhinehart Rockets had a set of tall imposing twins on defense One of them met Naya head-on and slapped the puck away before she could get off a shot Ruby tracked down the puck and brought it back across the blue line She passed to Heidi Gordon the right winger who had an open shot Heidi brought her stick high and smacked the puck hard It sizzled through the air but was deflected by the goalie Ruby was there for the rebound With a flick of her wrist she perfectly placed her shot over the goalie’s left shoulder It hit the back of the net The red light behind the goal whirled and a siren sounded signaling the goal 7
Goal Annie shouted her voice muffled by both her mouthguard and her visored mask After the Grizzlies quick score the two teams settled in The Rockets best left wing was a girl named Bryn Larson She was remarkably good and she wasn’t afraid to take a shot Annie kept her eyes on Bryn Once still early in the game Bryn took a wrist shot that blazed toward the corner of the goal but Annie deflected it with her leg pad Another time Bryn tried a slap shot in front of the goal but Annie knocked it away with her blocker Her teammates nicknamed Annie The Wall because hardly anything got by her 8
As the end of the first period was winding down the Grizzlies were still up 1-0 Ruby brought the puck up the ice and across the blue line As she lined up a shot the puck was stripped away by one of the twin Rocket defensive players She passed up to their center The center passed it over to Bryn who immediately shot the puck The puck looked a little fuzzy to Annie as it sailed high past a Grizzlies defensive player But Annie easily caught it in her oversized glove called a trapper The ref stopped play Piece of cake she thought one moment and then next that was a little weird thinking about how the puck looked fuzzy to her As Annie passed the puck to the ref Ruby skated past Nice save she said 9
