Chapter 20 Rival Ice #2
Rowan cut into the space they created and released low through Finn's screen.
The net snapped.
4-3.
Rowan had needed no pass from Luca to finish the play. Luca reached him at the glass and wrapped an arm around his shoulders with the others. Rowan's glove pressed briefly against Luca's ribs, secure and instinctive.
Then the celebration ended. Rowan released him first.
The final ninety seconds lasted longer than the period before them. Northstar's opponent pulled its goalie. Six attackers crowded the zone, Kaito moving between the circles and forcing every Wolves defender to turn his head.
Gabriel stopped a shot through traffic. Mateo blocked another with the outside of his knee and limped back into position. Rowan won a board battle one-handed and pushed the puck far enough for Luca to reach it.
The empty net waited beyond center ice.
Finn was open along the wall with time to carry the puck out. Luca registered him, measured the distance, and shot from inside his own blue line.
The puck missed wide.
Icing.
The whistle returned all six attackers to Northstar's zone with fifty-two seconds left. Vale's mouth tightened. Finn struck Luca's shin pad once as they prepared for the draw.
"You saw me."
"I saw the net."
"The net was a postal code away."
Rowan said nothing. The clock and the defensive-zone faceoff had already completed the correction.
Kaito won the draw. A point shot hit traffic and dropped at the edge of the crease. Gabriel found it only after Finn tied up a stick and Rowan swept the puck beneath him. The official's whistle disappeared under the crowd.
Twenty-one seconds.
Vale kept the line out. Luca expected Rowan to replace him with a defensive winger. Rowan only pointed toward the wall.
"No chase. Win your side."
Kaito drove the next puck deep. Finn met him at the boards. For two seconds they stayed locked over it, neither able to move his feet without giving the other leverage.
The horn sounded.
Finn straightened first. Kaito said something too low for Luca to catch. The strain left Finn's face all at once, replaced by a blankness that did not belong to victory.
Kaito tapped the cuff of Finn's glove as they separated. It was small enough to pass for sportsmanship and strange enough that Luca remembered it.
The Wolves had protected the lead and pulled their record even at 6-6.
In the locker room, victory loosened everyone except the three men whose histories had helped shape it.
Finn received the game puck for his goal and assist. He held it up as though inspecting a manufacturing defect.
"Graphic design continues its campaign against dignity," he said, reading the marker inscription.
The team laughed. Finn tossed the puck into his stall and disappeared into the shower before media arrived.
Vale stopped beside Luca. "Two points. Three bad decisions."
"You count like Rowan."
"That is why he wears the letter and you wear a tracking sensor."
Vale moved on. The line earned a laugh from Jace, but Luca heard the warning. Production would not protect him forever.
Reporters gathered around Rowan and asked about the top line.
"They trust the read," Rowan said. "That is why the options stay open."
At the next stall, Luca unlaced his skates and listened to Rowan offer a clean version of them to strangers. The game tape would show Rowan knowing where Luca would move before Luca committed. It would also show Luca refusing the better option whenever glory presented itself.
After media, he found Rowan near the equipment corridor.
"Did you mean it?" Luca asked.
Rowan adjusted the strap of his travel bag. "What?"
"Trust."
His attention flicked toward the locker-room entrance. "On the ice, yes."
The qualifier required no thought.
Luca nodded. "Right."
"You need to stop treating a favorable rebound as proof that the shot was correct."
"I know."
"Then why did you take the empty net?"
"Because for one second I thought I could make the whole arena certain about me."
Rowan's grip tightened around the bag strap.
Luca had offered more truth than the hockey question required. Rowan answered only the part he could manage.
"Certainty is not the same as possession."
"That sounded almost personal."
"It was a hockey correction."
Of course it was.
Finn emerged from the locker room, saw them, and slowed. Damp hair curled at his forehead. The usual joke did not come.
Luca stepped away. "Bus in twenty, Captain."
On the flight home, the winning goal spread across social media. Analysts praised the line's instinctive chemistry. One caption said Hale and Bennett seemed connected by invisible wire.
Luca watched the clip once. Rowan stole the puck, Finn screened, and Luca carried a defender out of the shooting lane. They had solved the same play together without exchanging a word.
The next clip showed Luca icing the puck instead of giving it to Finn.
He closed the app.
Beside the window, Rowan reviewed game video with his headphones on. Finn sat across the aisle, awake but motionless, Kaito's glove tap sealed somewhere behind his closed expression.
Luca had never felt more connected to two men on the ice.
Away from it, all three of them kept their separate silences.