Penalty Shot Read Online Free PDF Page A

puck under its control. The center started to move in closer to the red goal.
    “Pass it!” Coach Wallace yelled. “Move it around!”
    The blue center hesitated for a moment. That was his mistake. Bucky swooped in and captured the puck. Hayes was already streaking
     over the center line and heading for the attacking zone.
    But Bucky had been stopped in the defending zone by a double team of defense-men. He couldn’t pass to Hayes without risking
     an offside call. Even though it was only a scrimmage, Jeff knew Bucky was too good a player to deliberately cause an offense.
     So, instead of sending the puck to his brother, he dropped a quick pass back to Shep.
    Shep skated furiously into the neutral zone. By that time, Hayes had turned aroundand come back toward center ice. The two were close enough now for Shep to make a good pass.
    Hayes collected the puck carefully and took off down the ice again. Bucky shook free of his defender and skated parallel to
     him. All Hayes had to do was pass the puck over and Bucky would have an easy shot at the goal.
    From where Jeff was, it looked simple enough.
    But somehow Hayes botched it. He sent the puck skyrocketing behind the net and around the board to the opposite side.
    A blue defender pounced on it and sent it skimming down the ice. As the red team chased after it, Jeff heard Bucky hiss at
     Hayes, “Dummy!”
    From the number of players who cast looks in that direction, Jeff knew that everyoneelse on the ice had heard it, too. Hayes turned bright red under his helmet but kept his eyes straight ahead.
    For the rest of the scrimmage, Jeff could see that Hayes’s heart wasn’t in the game. Midway through, Coach Wallace made some
     team changes. He brought in some guys from the bench, switched blue players to red and vice versa, and pointed the leftovers
     to the sidelines. Chad took over for Hayes, Bucky stayed in center, and Kevin remained where he was. Jeff wound up on the
     bench next to Hayes.
    When the shuffling around was finished, Jeff got a surprise when he saw who had replaced him. It was Sam Metcalf!
    Guess Coach really meant what he said about alternates getting even playing time, Jeff thought.
    He could tell right from the first face-offthat Sam was a solid team player. He, Chad, and Bucky made a powerful front line. Passes were sharp and accurate. Run after
     run down the ice, the threesome eluded their defenders to take shots on goal.
    Fifteen minutes later, Coach Wallace mixed things up again. Jeff returned to right wing, but on the blue team, with Shep backing
     him up on defense. They performed well together, but Jeff still felt he and Kevin were the obvious duo.
    Coach Wallace blew his whistle.
    “Okay, one last change around, then we’ll all cool down and head for the showers.” When he had finished repositioning people,
     Jeff found himself on the bench sitting between Sam and Bucky. Hayes and Kevin were on the seats behind them.
    “Boy, that felt great!” Sam said enthusiastically. Then his grin faded. “I gotta tell you guys, it’s pretty hard sitting on
     the bench. Iwas a regular starter at my old school.” He sighed.
    Bucky shrugged. “Well, you never know. The reason Coach made those alternate positions is so he can dump some dead weight
     if he needs to — or if he
has
to. Right, Jeff?” He elbowed Jeff sharply in the ribs.
    Jeff cut Bucky an angry look. “Or maybe he’ll decide he wants to put a real team player, a guy who shows a good attitude toward
     his teammates, on the ice instead of some loudmouth who spends half his time criticizing other players!” he shot back.
    “Well, I’m sure he’d rather have a loudmouth than a ’fraidy cat! Or should I say ’fraidy
dog?”
Bucky replied sarcastically.
    Jeff felt his face turn beet red.
    “Hey, you guys, break it up,” Kevin whispered. “The coach is coming over.”
    The last scrimmage had ended and Coach Wallace was signaling the boys to skate a fewlaps, then head for the showers.