It is February 2050, another cold day in Torte City and hockey playoffs were just beginning. The Fliers have found themselves in the playoffs for the first time ever. Nobody thought they would make it to the playoffs, especially the players. The Fliers never made it to the playoffs before because there was no consistency in their playing or their ability to work together as a team. Each person on the team had their own idea on how to play the game. No one could ever agree. No coach wanted to take on this team until this past year when Bill Smith decided to take over the team. He did what he could and was frustrated all of the time. The players never learned how to play together and they never got along ...until now.


Once the Fliers realized the playoffs were in their future, they decided to really come together as a team. Bill told Matt, the team captain, to bring everyone together to talk about the playoffs and working as a team to make it to the finals. The players agreed to put their feelings aside and learned to get along and listen to the coach. Everyone wanted to beat the Glaciers, the best team in the country. Justin and Tony, the assistants, agreed with Bill’s idea and wanted to help him out. The boys brought everyone for the first practice in the floating ice rink.


The city of Torte had the first floating ice rink in history. It was built in 2040. Inside, the stands float as well. This allows spectators to see the game from all angles. The locker rooms are under the stands. There is also a huge workout room under the stands for the players to use to get in shape. Having the stands float allows more room for the players to have larger locker rooms and more equipment in the workout room. In order to get to the ice rink, one had to use jet packs that were worn on a person’s back. The jet packs could be folded up and put into a pocket when not in use.


During practice Matt, Justin, and Tony were playing harder than they ever had before. The rest of the teammates were fooling around and weren’t really trying. Matt was trying to get the teammates to pay attention and make them do drills. He gathered everyone around and told them, “no one ever thought that we would make it to the playoffs. Now we are, so everyone stop messing around and let’s see if we can win this championship!”


All of the guys agreed with Matt, and realized he was right. Everyone wanted to make it to the championship game against the best team, the Glaciers. They ran the drills and took their practices seriously for the first time in their hockey careers no matter how many times during practice they fell or messed up a play. The first goal was to win against the Galaxy. The Galaxy was a decent team. They won their division with only one loss in the season.


For the first game against the Galaxy, both teams are well prepared. During the first period, Justin scores the first goal of the game top shelf blocker side. Within seconds, the Galaxy scored twice against the Fliers. In the last period, Tony scored a goal to tie up the game. Ten seconds were left in the game and the Galaxy had the puck until they were about to shoot with an open net. Matt steals the puck, deaks the goalie and scores as the buzzer sounds to end the game! The Fliers won Round One of the playoffs! The team was so excited. History has been made!


Round Two of the playoffs had the Fliers playing the Bobcats. The Fliers thought that the Bobcats were going to be a tough team to beat. They heard that the Bobcat players were aggressive on the ice. At the beginning of the game, the Fliers had more possession of the puck than the Bobcats. The Bobcats had a lot of penalty minutes making it easy for the Fliers to take more shots at the goalie. By the end of the second period the score was 3-0. During the third period, Matt and Justin each got a bad injury. It is now all Tony’s responsibility to keep the game going. At the end of the game, the Bobcats scored on the wrong net by accident not once, but twice! This made the score 5-0.


Matt and Justin’s injuries took them out of the game against the Bobcats, but they insisted on playing in the championship game against the Glaciers. Matt’s injury was not nearly as bad as Justin’s. Matt had only a sprained left wrist from the slashing of a stick from a Bobcat player. He iced his wrist and taped it. Justin, on the other hand, took a slap shot to the jaw. The slap shot was a knuckle ball, which means that the puck is spinning up and down rather than sideways. The trainers and paramedics rushed out on the ice to help him off of it. There was blood on Justin, his equipment and on the ice. Justin was taken out on a stretcher and rushed to the hospital. Ambulances, police cars and fire trucks have the ability to fly as well as drive to avoid traffic. Both boys really wanted to play in the next game despite their injuries.


The big day finally arrived. It was time for the Championship game. Everyone on the Fliers team was nervous and excited at the same time. This was going to be a challenge. Both the Captain and the Assistant were out due to injuries. How would they win without their two best players?


The puck falls from the ceiling for the first face-off. The Flyers win the face-off. The Glaciers are fighting for the puck with big hits. Tony had control of the puck within six minutes into the game, he deaked the goalie and scored. No one was able to score again by the end of the first period. At the beginning of the second period, the Glaciers had control of the puck and within four minutes, they tied up the game. After the Glaciers first goal, Matt insisted on being put into the game. Because it was the championship game, the coach allowed him to play. Matt’s wrist still hurt, but winning the game was more important. Even with the Fliers’ best player on the ice, the Glaciers took control of the puck and scored again. Pushing through the pain, Matt was able to score in the middle of the third period, tying up the game again. With the final two minutes of the third period left, Justin came in with his injury. He really wanted to win this game. He pushed through the pain, taking checks from other players into the boards. Time was running out on the clock. Justin had the puck, went up center ice and was checked by one of the Glaciers’ players. The Glaciers took the puck and scored while Justin was lying on the ice. The buzzer sounded. The Fliers lost the game 3-2.


As the Fliers’ players were leaving the stadium with sad, defeated faces, the referee came running to the coach and told him that the Glaciers were disqualified because one of their players was too old to be on the league. The coach could hardly believe what he was hearing! The Fliers actually won! The coach ran to the players and announced the good news. They won. The whole team was so excited while holding the trophy. The coach was so proud of them for actually coming together as a team to win. They all congratulated each other and vowed to always work together as a team. Never before had these players felt such a victory!