“Let’s go Let’s go! Skate!” yells Coach Johnson
All the players are tired and not conditioned to play three periods of hockey. They are weak, lazy, not disciplined and they just do not care. Last season they won four games. These high school kids from Grand Marais Minnesota, live in a small town and go to a small school. Minnesota is usually known as a hockey state, but not for Grand Marais high school. They have a lot of kids on the hockey team that get into trouble and they don’t show up to their classes. These kids need some education and some discipline, someone needs to come in and help them
Grand Marais had a game Friday night against a powerhouse Saint Paul team. Saint Paul was big, strong and fast. They had one kid named James Anderson who is supposed to be the best hockey player in the Nation and is suppose to be the number one recruit when he goes to the NHL draft. Back in the day Grand Marais had a fabulous player named Kyle Gordon, He was all-state for his four years of his high school career. He had a full ride to Boston College University, but his first year there he had a career ending injury. He goes to all of the Grand Marais hockey games and actually got a job offer to coach there. The game against Saint Paul, Grand Marais lost 7-1. Mr. Gordon knew that he had to go and coach these kids so after the game he met with Coach Johnson. The two discuss about the job and they have a meeting with the principle the next day.
Mr. Gordon met with the principal and the coach and he officially accepted the job.
“This job is going to have take great responsibility and commitment.” said Principal Gary.
“I know and I will take on that challenge.” replied Mr. Gordon
“Okay well, be there at practice tomorrow.” answered Principal Gary
The next day came and Coach Gordon was ready for practice and waited to meet the guys at the rink. The team comes right after school to get to practice. When the guys got their Coach Gordon introduced himself and the team was not being respectful. Coach had to set some rules and they had to follow them or they would have punishments. He also had them sign a contract that said they had to attend all of their classes and they had to sit in the front row of those classes, also they had to maintain a 2.3 GPA or they would not be able to play. The players did not like that and thought that this new coach was crazy. They did not know who he was and didn’t know that he use to play for this team and they also didn’t know that he was one of the best players in his time. One of the players named Kenny says “This is bull, we play hockey, we don’t need school.”
“You actually need school to play hockey sir.” replied Coach
“Man you don’t know what you are talking about, you are just a coach.” screamed Kenny
“Thank you for saying that sir, now give me 20 suicides.” said Coach
After that Kenny started to skate off the ice and did not want to be on the team anymore because of the new coach.
“Think of the decision you make if you skate off this ice.” said Coach Gordon.
Kenny stopped and looked at him for a second and didn’t say anything and skated off.
“Guys, if you want to win a state championship you have to work hard everyday at practice and I promise you it will pay off, am I the only one that wants to win a championship?” says coach
If you didn’t know I go to most of the hockey games, so I know what needs to be worked on for this team. We will need to work on your guy's conditioning so you won’t be as tired as the other team when it is deep in the third period and we need to do everything we can to stop the other team. We will also work on defense because letting five or more goals every game will not cut and it, you guys will not win many games while letting up that many goals in a game. Lastly we will work on offense with shooting drills to get your guys confidence up to score. Today for practice we are just going to condition and trust me it will make you guys a lot better. On the goal line give me some suicides.  If you want to succeed as much as you want to breath you guys will be successful, but that comes from you not me. I can help you out as much as I can but you have to want it. Think of all the glory at the end of the season you guys can have and all the respect you can gain. Just think of all of this while you guys do these suicides. No one thinks you will be anything, but I believe we can be champions if you guys work on the ice and in the classroom. Solid day of conditioning fellas we are gonna do this for 3 days this week because we don’t have another game until two weeks from now so be ready for tomorrow and get some rest.
Three days have past and it is time for some defensive work. Okay guys when we are in the defensive zone make sure you do not follow the puck, don’t chase. If a player from the other team has the puck get in front of the puck and block the shot so it doesn’t make it to the net. Also keep your stick in the passing lane so what I mean is your body is in front of the puck and your stick is out on the side in between the guy with the puck and the other guy that is open. When you do this the opponent has to rethink his options and try to find something else. If the puck has been in our zone for more than thirty seconds someone yell fire and just ice the puck. Get the puck out hard, an easy way to do this is high off the glass. You do that because it is hard for the defenseman to stop that puck. I think you guys are ready for our next game, we will progressively get better and better.
Today is game day and we play Bloomington High School. We are definitely  ready for our game in about an hour, but just remember what we did in practice. I know we didn’t do any offensive things in practice but that is okay, you guys will be faster than them so I want you guys just to skate past them and make sure you go to the net hard and we will get goals. It is the end of the second period and we are up 3-1. Good work so far guys, hard work pays off eh? Third period has started and the puck is dropped. We take the puck into the zone pass it back door and score! 4 to 1 now at the start of the third period. With twenty seconds left the score is 5 to 2 and we know we have won the game. Ten games have flown by and our record for those ten games are 9 and 1. We have come a long way guys, great job I am so proud of all of you. Playoffs start next week and we have to be ready.
First playoff game and we play St. Cloud High, I have a strong feeling about this game. This game was a breeze as we finished the game winning 8 to 2. We now move on to the next round of playoffs and we are getting closer and closer to the biggest game we can play, but it takes little steps. We now have to play Duluth High School and this game will be a little harder than our first. First period looking good we are winning 1-0. Second period was a little shaky, we let them get 2 on us, so the score now is 1-2. We need to work harder boys, we are more conditioned than they are and this is why we would always condition, for these moments here. During the third period we pop in two quick goals to play it 3-2. With only a minute left in the game the score is still 3-2 and they pull their goalie and the puck is in our zone. We keep fighting and pushing, then we finally get the puck out of our zone and we win the game! The Quarterfinal game was easier than we all thought, we won that game 4-0. We are now in the final four of the playoffs and only one more game to go to the State Finals. We play Edina and they are a really good team, they have only lost five times in the whole regular season. Boys, We have came to far to stop and this will not be the game, let’s get out there and win. The end of the second period we are up 1-0. This game is going quick and everyone is doing great. The third period so many shots on both goalies just no one can put it in the back of the net. We end up winning the game 1-0 and the shots were 44-40 in favor of them. We are now in the finals!
We have to play St. Paul, they are the best team in the State. Guys, you know this will be tough but we can do it. After the first period we are up 2-0, it was a solid period and we finished our shots. After the second period we let them get back into it and is now 2-2. Third period is about to start and it is the biggest period of these kids hockey career. You guys know what to do, at this point I don’t need to tell you what to do. They are so tired and you guys are fine because of all the conditioning. Third period starts and St. Paul wins the faceoff and somehow get a breakaway already, but a great save from our goalie. We take a fast break and it's a two on one and we score! 3-2 with five minutes left to go. We take a penalty so we are down a man. St. Paul sets up in the zone and they give Anderson, the best player in the nation the puck, he walks one guy and picks the top left corner and score. 3-3 with one minute left and we call a timeout. Someone man up Anderson and do not let him get the puck. The timeout is done and the puck is in our zone, St. Paul wins it back, 30 seconds left the defenseman takes a slapshot… it’s off one of our own plays body and trickles into the net! St. Paul fans and players are going crazy! And we can’t believe what just happened, they scored with 5 seconds left and it hit off our own player! St. Paul wins the State Championship.
When we get back to the locker room; I am so proud of how you guys worked, of how you improved, thank you so much for everything it was an amazing season. You should have nothing to be disappointed at. We will be back next year no doubt about. Great season boys, so proud.