The Shootout Winner

About the Piece

        I chose this piece because it actually happened and it was one of the best moments in my life. This piece is about me scoring the shootout winner that sent us to the finals of our provincial tournament. This event boosted my morale in the sport. The team that I was on that year was my favorite team I have ever been on. It consisted some really good players and some really good people. This event took place 2 years ago in January 2015. In this piece, I am showing off my skill of using good adjectives and having the ability of using sounds in my piece a lot and using them to reflect emotions.

The Piece

Scotty P. shot the puck but it was too late. The buzzer rang in my ears signaling overtime was over. The playoffs, if we won this game, we would head to the finals. My team gathered around the bench to receive the shootout plan from our offensive coach. The lineup was the following: Connor Houston, Matthew Janiszewski, then me. Our team was instructed to go after the other team in the shootout since we were the home team. The other team team sent out their player on to the ice. His jersey read ‘Draper’. I remember him. He was had scored many goals against us that year. He had been an offensive devil. Draper started slowly but got a burst of speed. He glided through the ice trying to find a way to put the puck in the net. My goalie flashed his glove and made a beautiful save. A sigh of relief went across my team’s bench. We were actually all so relieved.

My team was up  next. So Connor weaved through the ice and tried a deek but he ended up getting stopped by the goalie and their team got really hyped up.  The Remparts (the team we were playing) sent their second player on to the ice but he rang the puck off the post. Both teams went once again and I was starting to get nervous, since it was nearing my turn.

The Remparts sent out their player on to the ice. At this moment, I did not know what to feel at the time, I was nervous, but pumped up at the same time. The player on the Remparts went in slow on our goalie and had a great attempt as he faked to the left but our goalie made the save look really easy. I was up next. I could win the game on one shot.

The only thing going through my head was that I could end the whole game with on this attempt. I skated out to center ice and watched as the ref laid the puck down on the ice. I heard his whistle blow indicating that I had to go. Everything went silent and the only thing that I could hear were the blades of my skates carving through the ice. I was taking some hard strides at that moment and I came in on the left side of the goalie. I moved very suddenly to the left as I almost fell down but I regained my speed and went to the backhand of my stick and swept the puck to my forehand as I had the whole net to shoot at. The goaltender was out of position and time seemed to slow down. I heard the blade of my stick slap at the puck as I saw the puck hover through the air as it flung the netting back on the net. Time seemed to get back to normal and the sound went back to normal. I looked towards my bench, and my teammates were celebrating. We were headed to the finals.

About the Author

I am Samuel Hynes-Klempa and I have definitely developed as a reader and writer in my 7^th grade year. I enjoy to write fictional stories and some stories about some events in my life. Last year, I wasn't using adjectives as much as I do now and now I could get a lot more into the detail of the story and get deep into the climax point of the story. I honestly think that I have really improved as a writer and I think that I will keep improving for the years to come.