She was gone when I woke up. At first I thought I imagined what had happened last night. But opening my eyes wider I realized it couldn't have been a dream; I was in Haley's bed. Not my own; it had to have happened.

She still loved me; she forgave me; again. Again seemed to be a reoccurring thing lately. I've been screwing up too much. I rolled over onto my side, eyeing the clock in front of me; it was about time I got up for practice.

My body felt sore; it took all of my effort to even climb from bed. Feeling a little down, I still forced myself to head out of Haley's abandoned apartment, and into my own. But before I did I searched everywhere; I hoped she would pop out of somewhere; but I just found emptiness.

I felt my heart break a little; what if I really was dreaming? What if she didn't forgive me? I walked into my apartment to the delicious smell of bacon and eggs. It was strange for Tyler to be cooking; it couldn't be him.

“Since when do you cook?” I asked as I walked into the kitchen. I rounded the corner to come face to face with Erica; made sense now, Tyler never cooked.

“Look who joined the land of the living” Erica chuckled, flipping over the eggs. “You look like death still” she added with a frown. “Is everything okay?”

“I- I don't know” I mumbled with a frown. Was everything okay? It seemed nothing was going right for me lately.

“Where's Haley? You didn't bring her with you?” She asked, slightly confused.

“She was gone when I woke up” I told her softly, willing myself to keep it together. Today I had to try and keep my head in the game; my team needed me to keep it together for today's practice, and the next hopefully five games.

“Sorry I took so long!” I heard a familiar voice shout as she came into my place. “I went to go wake up Jamie but he was-” she cut herself off when she saw me. “Guess you woke up sooner than I thought” she grinned, placing the bag of groceries on the counter.
I felt relief wash through me; it wasn't a dream.

“Sorry I wasn't there when you woke up” Haley whispered as she pulled me in for a kiss. I held onto her tightly, glad I still had her. “I was going to wake you up when breakfast was ready, but I guess you beat me to it” she chuckled, pulling away and looking at me with concern. “Jame? Babe, you look like you've seen a ghost” the smile vanished from her face, being replaced with concern.

“I thought you left me” I muttered, putting my head down. “When you weren't there this morning I- I thought I dreamt the part you forgave me” I felt my eyes get watery; I guess when it came to losing Haley crying became inevitable. I needed her; I couldn't afford to lose her.

“I'm never leaving you, Jamie” she whispered, pulling my arm into the living room, out of earshot from Erica. “I love you, so much. It kills me to see you like this” she told me, her voice cracking with every word she spoke. She pulled herself into my arms, collapsing into quite sobs. I held her closely, kissing the top of her head every so often.

“I love you too” I managed to reply steadily, still clinging to her tightly.

“And because I love you, I need you to do me a favour”

“Anything” I answered immediately, pulling away and eyeing her curiously.

“Please stop worrying about me; about us. We're okay Jame. I'll always be here. But do you know what won't always be here? Your chance to win the freaking Stanley cup!”

“But-”

“No buts Jamie, you know I'm right. You've wanted this your entire goddamn life! Are you really going to lose focus because of a silly fight between us?” Her words caught me off guard, but I couldn't disagree with them; she was right.

“I know but-”

“Enough with the buts” she sighed with a light laugh. “I love you; you know that. So because I love you I'm kicking some sense into that stubborn head of yours. The most important thing in the world right now; the Stanley Cup. Nothing matters right now. Just you, your team, and winning the next four straight games. When you look back on this when you're retired; are you going to remember not giving your all because you and your girlfriend had a disagreement? Or are you going to remember kicking some ass and being a champion?” She ended her speech, gauging my reaction to it.

“You still matter” I answered back in defeat; she was right.

“Dear god you're hopeless” she laughed rolling her eyes.

“No, you're right” I sighed heavily.

“I'm what?” She bit back a smile.

“You're right” I said a little bit louder, through gritted teeth.

“I love hearing you say that” she snickered, kissing me quickly.

“But I just want you to know I love you and you still matter” I told her firmly. I couldn't screw this up again.

“I know Jame, I'll never forget that”



**************



“Well here we go” I muttered to myself, the music blaring loudly from the arena. To my word, I had spent the last day and a bit preparing for the game ahead. I studied plays, worked out, went over strategy, and tried to discover how on earth we could score on Carey Price. There was no denying he was the best goaltender in the world right now; we had to prove that wrong for the series.

There was no doubts in my mind Montreal came in with a lot of confidence. Since they acquired Phil Kessel from the Toronto maple leafs in the summer before the 2015-2016 season, their offence had taken off. He was this years Art Ross Trophy winner, having himself a career year with the habs.

He was responsible for four of Montreal’s goals this series; and in addition to solving Carey Price, we had to somehow shut down the right winged sniper.

We knew those would be our two main focuses in a desperate attempt to get back into this series. It was a well known fact not many teams could come back from the dreaded 3-0 series drought. As much confidence I had in my team, that was something in the Stanley cup finals I was unsure we'd be able to climb back from.

Opening face off; Tyler won. A million thoughts ran through my brain as we took the puck into their zone. Tyler passed the puck to me; I took a shot, off the left pad of Price and came out right to Tyler whose stick was slashed out of his hands just as he was about to shovel one into the empty cage.

Even from the distance I could tell how pissed off he was. As much as it was great that we has a power play, we both would have much fathered break our goal-less streak once and for all.
End of the first period, at least we didn't get scored on; but there was seven straight periods of hockey we were unable to score in.

The shots were 10-4 in favour of us; we had turned up the heat, but somehow still couldn't solve freaking Price.

The frustration was evident in the locker room; we all wanted so desperately to score.

“We need to simplify things” I spoke up after Ruff called on me. “We're trying to complicate things; get a pretty goal. At this point I think we need a garbage goal; we need anything. If we can just keep getting pucks to the net; keep screening him; keeping pushing traffic and the puck out front… We just need one. Once we get one, the floodgates will open. Obviously there's been nothing but talk about how we can't score amongst everyone in the hockey community since the first game ended. Let's get all that bullshit out of our heads and play our game”

“Captains right” Tyler stood up, nodding. “Let's win this”

Second period started on the penalty kill. The only seemingly good part of our game as of right now was the penalty kill; we killed it off with ease once more. After the penalty kill he habs went almost ten whole minutes without getting a shot on net; we were laying on the pressure.

At the end of the second frame we had 17 shots to their 4; but still could not solve the master that was Carey Price.

Not much was said this time; all I had to say, all anyone had to say was already said. We knew what we had to do. Coach had no problem with our play; I had no problem with our play. But eight periods without a single goal was beginning to take away our confidence piece by piece; I think everyone knew it.

Opening face off of the third; won by Tyler. We managed to push into the offensive zone, and after 20 seconds of puck cycle Price covered up. Coach waved Spezza on the ice, and for Tyler and I to stay; he wanted a goal. I looked behind me to notice my older brother nodding in my direction; we needed a goal on this.

Face off was won again back to Jordie, who without a second thought riffled one from the point. What happened next seemed to be slow motion. I stood in front of the next, tipping the puck on the way by. I felt a stick upside my head, knocking me forcefully to the ground. The only reason I knew the puck even went in the net was from the loud screams, the goal horn, and the battle cry shouts of my teammates, who came skating towards me so quickly I thought they were going to knock me over again.

“We fucking scored!” Jordie shouted, pulling me in for the biggest hug I had ever received.

“Chubs you fucking did it!” Spezza shouted, as we all skated to the bench to tap hands with the teammates on the bench.

We looked up to the big screen, smiling with pride when we realized we finally solved Carey price, just a minute and a half after the ninth scoreless period started. But there was no more counting our goalless periods; we scored. I scored. Other than the goal in Sochi two years ago, I didn't think there was a more important goal I scored.

Notes