It took me a few second to realize what exactly happened. That's when pain started to settle into my side. My left shoulder and arm are throbbing and it took a second to shake the daze from my head. Toni, Becca, and Stacey all came over and helped me to my feet. Together, they skated me over to the bench where the team trainer took over for the girls and led me right back down the tunnel to the locker room.
Once I was back in the locker room, our trainer Marissa sat me down in my locker. Still in a daze, I barely realized she got my helmet, jersey and pads off before she put her hand on my chin to get me to focus on her face. Once my eyes found hers, she walked me through a few deep breaths and that's when I really started to feel the pain in my shoulder.
"You're shoulder popped out a little bit I'm going to put it back in, this is going to be uncomfortable. I'm going to do it on three okay." Marissa said after feeling all around my shoulder.
"Do whatever you have to to get me back on the ice." I said wanting to give McMichael a piece of my mind.
"Alright, on three, one" Before Marissa even got to two she pushed my shoulder back into place and it felt even worse than it did when Tatiana ran into me, I couldn't help the scream that escaped my mouth or the little black spots in my vision.
"It's okay, it's all done. You did good McKenna, just breath. I'm going to help move it around to check your range of motion, as long as it feels okay you can get back into the game." Marissa said and I nodded.
Marissa went through stretching my arm out and the pain finally started to recede. It was only then, now that the pain was gone, that everything that just happened sank into my brain. Someone I hoped I never would see again is back and I know she is going to pick a fight with me every chance she gets. Tatiana and I played for rival schools back home in Massachusetts. Everyone would always pit us against each other because we were the only girls on an all guys teams. I never really had any hard feelings against her. I thought she plays a very physical game and she is very good at what she does. She was always able to find the perfect line in throwing a hit that was legal and just a hair on the dirty side.
During my junior year of high school I started dating a girl from my school. Even though I needed to keep our relationship quiet, she understood and agreed. Things were going really well between us. After she started coming to my games, I found out from one of my teammates that she recently broke up with Tatiana when we first started going out. My ex explained her side of the story that Tatiana wasn't good to her and would push her around from time to time and she broke up with things went a bit too far. After she shared that with me, I fell even harder for her and we ended up getting serious.
As time went on, Tatiana saw how happy we were together and got pretty jealous. Whenever we played against each other she would always lay extra hits against me and I had to constantly watch my back. Things boiled over one night at a party. One of my friends on the team invited us all to a party and at the time I didn't realize the party was at one of Tatiana's friend's house.
When I walked through the door I could feel the vides in the house weren't right. I didn't want to stay for long and my girlfriend agreed. She went off to the bathroom while I found Travis to let him know that we were leaving. As she was coming out of the bathroom, Tatiana cornered my girlfriend and started grabbing her to make her stay at the party. Travis saw what was going on over my shoulder and told me about what was going on and I got in the middle of my girlfriend and Tatiana. Tatiana didn't like that and threw a few punches. I ended up with a black eye and a split lip and a cracked knuckle. I was able to land a few hits of my own before we were separated by the rest of our teams.
My girlfriend helped clean me up and things continued on between us for a little while longer. It wasn't much longer before things fell apart at home and even though I wanted to try and stay together, we broke up because it wasn't fair to her while I was trying to recover. We have stayed in touch throughout it all but things were never the same. But we both know if we need someone we would always be there for each other.
Things between Tatiana and I will always be tense but I thought that after the fight, she would back off. She didn't and I made sure to always one up her when we played. I think it made a difference when it came down to the final recruitment draft when I was selected as the number one recruit in the country. Tatiana feels like she still has something to prove to me and I'm not going to stoop to her level.
Marissa finally was done massaging my shoulder and I started to move it around on my own. Once I thought it was okay I got back into my pads and snapped my helmet back on and walk back down the tunnel. I took a seat back down on the bench next to Becca and looked around.
"What'd I miss?" I asked looking around. Coach Decker came over to me and made sure I was cleared by Marissa before he started to give me a rundown on what's going on. I missed about 10 minutes of the game with everything that happened but Coach was going to throw me back on the ice when he puts out the second line.
It took another minute but then Coach called our line and I hopped over the boards. I took an extra second to see who was on the ice with me and when I saw Tatiana's number 67 racing down the ice I knew I needed to put her in her place. A forward on her line was looking to pass the puck up to Tatiana as she was coming up the wing to try a breakaway but I don't think either of them saw me come onto the ice.
Just as they made the pass I turned on the jets and intercepted the pass. Tatiana looked shocked and she knew I beat her, hell I bet everyone. I steadied the puck on the breakaway and looked up to see their goalie come out to the top of her crease. I didn't give myself away and I picked my spot. I pulled my stick back and snapped my stick forward hitting the puck in the perfect spot I watched it sail right above the goalies catcher mitt and right into the netting of the goal.
I skated around the back of the net and did my usual celly. I bent down on one knee and circled my arm up in the air. Becca was the first one to reach me when I pulled out of it and jumped onto me along with Toni. Toni pushed me towards the bench and I led the line and pounded all the girls on the team. When I pulled out of the line I saw Tatiana standing close to her bench.
"That's how it's done!" I yelled in her direction. Stacey pulled me away from the other team when Tatiana started to skate over in my direction and I hopped back over the boards and took a seat on the bench.
Once I sat down on the bench I took a breath and look around. I just scored my first goal of my college career. It took a few more seconds to it to sink in and just enjoyed the moment. It looked like everyone on the bench got settled after the first goal was scored. Everyone on our team settled into the game and we all started to play our game.
My line was thrown onto the ice often and I made sure I knew where Tatiana was at all times when we were on the ice together. I didn't think my shoulder could take another hit like that this weekend. As the first period came to an end the score was still one nothing us. We all walked down the tunnel back into the locker room and I undid my helmet and took it off.
I took a seat in my locker and once I sat down Marissa came over to me and checked on my shoulder again. A bruise is already starting to form and I knew it was going to last for a while.
"When Tatiana's penalty was over Stacey gave her a good hit for you." Becca said as she drank some water.
"She didn't have to do that." I said and shook Marissa off just wanting to chill for a few minutes before we had to go back out there.
"Hey, you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us." Megan said loudly so the whole team heard.
"Do you have beef with her?" Becca asked.
"Yea, a lot of it. She thinks I stole her girlfriend from her in high school. We actually got into a fight at a party because of it. But I think I won that in the end." I said.
"Thatta girl." Becca said and gave me a pound on my shoulder.
We didn't get to chat much more. Coach Decker went over a few things he wanted us to work on for the second period of the game. Once our game plan was set, we all geared back up and went back out into the arena. Just as I was about to take my seat on the bench Coach Decker called out Magnolia, which is our line name. I looked back at him to make sure I wasn't hearing things and when he saw me looking at him he smiled.
"You earned it kid, go out there and take the face off." Coach said.
My teammates pushed me off the bench and I skated over to center ice. I lined up against Tatiana and I put my stick down. The ref didn't take long and dropped the put. I swept my stick blade over it and managed to get the puck out to Becca who pushed up ice.
"Not such a loud mouth now are ya?" I yelled over at Tatiana as I raced up ice to get into position in front of the net for a possible rebound. Becca passed the puck over to Toni and she faked like she was going to shoot but she dropped it back to a streaking Stacey who came up behind her like she was shot out of a cannon. Stacey ripped a shot and I was able to track it and stay out of the way of the shot. With my position I managed to screen their goalie enough that the puck sailed right into the net.
I could hear Stacey celebrating with the rest of the team while I reach into the goal and grabbed the puck for Stacey. I came over and gave the puck to Coach Mayfield and joined my line and we came across the front of the bench for fist pounds.
Already off to a good start. I took a seat on the bench and grabbed some water and watched as the third line hopped over the bench to take the next face off. If this is how all of our games are going to be, I'm excited to be a badger.
I think the second goal snapped Ohio State into second gear because they really stepped up their game for the rest of the second period. It didn't matter though. My team played a beautiful game. We kept foiling their chances and it was started to frustrate them. I knew that during the third period they were going to continue to press us.
When the third period kicked off, once again Coach Decker threw my line out on the ice to take the face off. We tried to take the puck up ice a few times but when I tried to enter the offensive zone I had three players covering me. So I had to dump the puck in and regroup. Most of the period was played like that. We played the chip and chase game to make sure that every time Ohio State wanted to try and get up ice towards our goal they had to go the full length of the ice.
The strategy worked though because before I knew it the horn sounded and we won our first game of the season. When we got back into the locker room I saw a puck waiting for me in my locker with tape wrapped around it. Written in black ink was todays date and my first goal.
"Before you guys start to break down from the game I just want to say a quick congrats on the first win of the year ladies!" Coach Decker yelled from the center of the room. We all cheered for a minute and looked around the room. Everyone had a smile on their face and I can tell this is going to be a good year.
"Congrats to two of our new teammates for scoring their first goals as well, McKenna and Stacey!" Coach said. A few of my teammates pushed Stacey and I into the center of the room and we both smiled.
"Let the social guys take a few pictures and then you guys can hit the showers. The bus will leave here in 45 minutes. When we get back to the hotel, dinner will be served at 6 and the men's game will be broadcasted in the ballroom for us to watch." Coach said and we all broke apart to change and take showers.
As I washed off I could already feel my shoulder start to hurt and I already knew it was going to nag me for a while. Once I finished off in the shower, I made sure I had everything and made my way out to the waiting bus. The bus ride back to the hotel was quiet as all the adrenaline started to wear off. When we got back to the hotel I made my way up to our room and called first bids on the bathroom. I needed to soak in some warm water for a little to hopefully loosen my shoulder.
I was able to sit in the tub for about 40 minutes before Becca pounded on the door wanting a turn. When I got out, I changed into some comfy clothes and made my way down the ballroom. Before I got inside I was able to find Marissa and she sat me down to look at my shoulder again. She gave me an Aleve and wrapped my shoulder up in ice packs. As she finished up, more of my team walked into the ballroom and we all started to grab some food for dinner.
As I sat down to eat I felt my phone vibrate. I know I probably have a lot of messages to go through but I was surprised to see that I had one new text from Cassie. I unlocked my phone and saw I actually had two new messages from her, both asking if I was okay after the hit. So I sent her a selfie with the ice wrapped around my shoulder and the message nothing a little ice won't fix. After I hit send I just called my mom. I knew she would rather hear my voice then a text. She answered right away and before I could even get a word in, she said she was going to kill Tatiana. I just laughed and let her have a moment before I took over the conversation.
We talked about the game for a few minutes and I even got to talk to Dawn for a little which was nice. She passed me back to mom after a few minutes and we talked a bit longer before more girls started to walk into the ballroom. Travis' game is starting so I wished them a good night and told mom I would give her a call tomorrow after our game.
Our coaches started to make their way into the ballroom as the puck was dropped on the guy's first game. Travis and I haven't talked much about hockey so I don't know where is sits on their lines. I had a feeling he isn't going to get a lot of playing time now. Maybe if he works his but off he will get more but Travis is going to have to prove himself on this team.
The first period of the game wasn't too eventful. Both teams played pretty evenly. Chad made his presence known really early on in the game with a few hard hits that look like they hurt from here. It looked like Travis is on the fourth line of the team. They didn't get that much ice time but it looked like Travis' coached like his play enough to threw him out on the ice with different lines.
The second period looked like the coach ripped into the team because they were playing even sharper then the first. It didn't stop Minnesota from scoring first though. It was on a two on one break away that our guys couldn't get back fast enough for. The score didn't change rest of the game and the guys dropped their first game of the season. Even though they had plenty of scoring chances they couldn't find the back of the net. Towards the end of the game Travis barely had any ice time and I felt bad for him. He is such a skilled hockey player that it made me sad for him to not get a chance to shine like I have on my new team.
After the game was over, Coach Mayfield had us all watch a little bit of game tape to go over a few things she wanted us to be aware of. One major thing was the big red target taped to my back whenever Tatiana was on the ice at the same time I was. During the course of the rest of our game I could feel her on my back the whole time. Whenever she could, she would find a way to hit me. I took more care of my body during this game then I think I ever had before.
The rest of my team came to my defense a lot and they were able to shake her off of me while we played but I knew this will only be the start. We still have to play them four more times this season and then in the playoffs if we both make it. With some new plans on how to get Tatiana off of me in place, we all called it a night and went up to our rooms. Our game was at noon the next morning and I needed a good night's sleep to try and shake Tatiana from my brain.
a/n: early update bc i will be busy tomorrow with mothers day things. happy mother's day to all the momma's out there, i hope you all have a lovely day.
so a little more insight on what is going on with McKenna and finally, some real hockey action! sorry it took so long, but i needed to build our characters and stuff. What do we think of Tatiana so far? This wont be the last we see of her i dont think. There is an NHL player who has the last name of McMichael and i wanted to include it somewhere in this story because it's such a good hockey last name.
song on the side is 1x1 by Bring Me the Horizon, fits well with McKenna's dealing with Tatiana and even her ex girlfriend who is mentioned a little. The ex will not be making an appearance anywhere in this book though so dont worry.