There once was a 13-year old boy by the name of Nathan Kanya. Nathan is the captain of the Western Pennsylvania Rangers in the National Tournament. This tournament involves one team from each of the fifty states in the U.S. Nathan scored the game-winning goal to advance his team to this tournament; that goal was set up by Eric Nero. Eric is the alternate captain for the Rangers. Out of fifty possible rankings, the Rangers stand as the twenty-third ranked team. Pennsylvania will have to play against the team from Hawaii. The Hawaii team advanced to this tournament by defeating their rival team by a score of 7-3.

In the first period of the game, Nathan scored two goals while Eric had two assists. The Rangers were leading 3-0 over the Hawaii Volcanoes after one period of play. In the second period, Eric Nero scored a goal that made it 4-0. Soon after the Ranger’s fourth goal, the Volcanoes came storming back with three goals in the final two and a half minutes of the period. The score was 4-3 after two periods. In the third period, the Rangers came out strong with an early goal just seventeen seconds into the period. That goal was one second shy of the Rangers quickest goal in this tournament. They scored a goal sixteen seconds into a period in their last game. Despite being down 5-3, Hawaii came storming back again with another three goal outburst within a five minute span after the Ranges’ fifth goal. For the first time in this game, Pennsylvania trailed. The score was 6-5 with about six minutes left when Nathan Kanya scored his hat trick goal to tie the game up at 6-6. In the next two minutes Eric Nero and two other teammates had scored three more goals. The Rangers now lead 9-6. In the final seconds, Hawaii scored another goal. The final score was 9-7. Nathan finished the game with three goals and two assists; Eric Nero finished the game with two goals and three assists. This was the first time ever that both Nathan and Eric both had five points in a game. At the end of the game, the players from both teams lined up at center ice and shook each other’s hands. This has been a hockey tradition for a very long time.

Now that the Rangers had moved on to the final 25 teams, they were ready for what was to come. For the first time ever in the history of this tournament, all of the higher seeds (1-25) have advanced to the second round. The higher seed, in this case the 1 seed, will be getting a bye or a free pass to the next round. That means that the Rangers, being the 23 seed, would have to face the 4 seeded Chicago Triumphs. Pennsylvania has played against Chicago only three times in the past, but they lost all three of the games. All of the predictions are saying that Chicago will demolish Pennsylvania. Before the game, the Rangers performed their pre-game ritual of each player and coach eating a piece of bacon. Nathan and Eric started this tradition when they each had a piece of bacon before a game; the whole team then wanted to get in on this tradition and they made it the official pre-game ritual.
In the first period, Chicago looked dominant as they scored four goals in the first period. The best that Pennsylvania did was score only one goal. Chicago led 4-1 after one period. It looked like Pennsylvania was done, but then the second period came along. In the second period, Nathan and Eric each scored two goals and assisted on each other’s goals. After that, the Rangers scored three more goals to really open up the game. They led 8-4 at the time and the Triumphs had to put their backup goalie in the net. After the second period ended, the score was 8-5 in favor of the Rangers. Early in the third period, the Triumphs scored another goal to make it 8-6. This forced the Rangers to call a timeout and regroup. After the timeout, things didn’t get any better. The Triumphs scored two goals in 41 seconds after the timeout to tie the game at 8 apiece. The Rangers then made a big push to score the go ahead goal, but the Triumphs had beaten them to it. The Rangers trailed 9-8. Nathan Kanya had two breakaways on back-to-back shifts and scored on both of them. They led 10-9 with the two goals. With about 20 seconds left in the game, Eric Nero scored another goal to clinch a victory for the Rangers. The final score was 11-9. Both Eric Nero and Nathan Kanya had three goals and two assists in the victory. After the game, the whole team celebrated with some bacon.
For the next game, the Pennsylvania Rangers would have to face the team from Massachusetts. Their name was the Boston Bruins because their team was from Boston and there is an NHL hockey team known as the Boston Bruins. The Bruins were ranked as the number one seed in the tournament. They got a bye in the last round and before that they defeated their opponent 6-0. Pennsylvania is coming off of an 11-9 victory over Chicago and a 9-7 victory over Hawaii. Eric Nero and Nathan Kanya were the two leaders for the PA Rangers. They each had back-to-back three goal games to help Pennsylvania to get to where they are today. And as usual, before the game Eric and Nathan ate a piece of bacon. Now, they were ready for a hockey game.
In the first period of the game, Pennsylvania started out really strong. They scored 4 goals in the first 7 minutes. They led 6-1 after the first period and Nathan and Eric made PA hockey history. Each of them had a hat-trick in the period. During the intermission, Eric and Nathan talked to their team about not giving up and to not let the Bruins come back and spoil their chances of a national title. In the second period, the Bruins came out with a vengeance. They started to outplay, outshoot, and even outhit the Rangers. On the other hand, the Rangers took four penalties in the second period; the Bruins scored on three of them. The score was now 6-4 in favor of the Rangers. PA’s coach said a lot of things to his team and it looked like they were prepped and ready to go for the third period. Before they went back out onto the ice, Nathan Kanya and Eric Nero both ate another piece of bacon; it was the first time that they’ve ever eaten a piece of bacon during the hockey game. In the third, the Rangers got some luck when Boston took two early penalties and gave Pennsylvania a five-on-three power play. On the power play, Nathan Kanya passed the puck out to the blue line to Eric Nero and he took a slap shot and the puck went into the net for a goal. Then, just 21 seconds later, Eric Nero passed the puck to Nathan who was below the goal line. Once had the puck, he tried to center a pass in front, but instead it hit a Bruin’s defender and sailed into the net for another goal. The Rangers now led 8-4 with about sixteen minutes left in regulation.
After the two quick strikes, the Bruins had to call a timeout in an attempt to try to get the team back in it. About the midway point of the third period, the Rangers were on another power play and the Bruins were being very aggressive on the penalty kill. This aggressive strategy was actually a smart decision because it caused the Rangers to make a few mistakes that led to two Bruins goals to cut the score to 8-6. Despite two shorthanded goals and some mistakes that they were making, the Rangers were able to bounce back with a hard slap shot that was taken by a Ranger defenseman that went into the net to make it 9-6. It looked like it was all over for the Bruins but they didn’t give up that easily. They scored two goals within one minute of each other to make it 9-8 with forty-three seconds left in the third period.
The Bruins’ net was empty for the face-off and for the rest of the game possibly. The face-off was won cleanly by the Bruins against Nathan Kanya, who is the Ranger’s best face-off taker. The Bruins brought the puck in and dumped it in and three players went after it. With only thirty seconds left, three Bruins and two Rangers battled and battled persistently for the puck before eventually the puck was knocked loose, carried up a bit by Eric Nero, and then was shot towards the empty net from behind his own blue line and missed the net by near inches and was touched by a Boston defender for an icing call with 22.4 seconds remaining the third period. Now the face-off was to be taken to the left of the Ranger goal and Nathan Kanya was to take the draw once again. This time though, Nathan got kicked out of the face-off for trying to jump the drop of the puck; now Eric Nero stepped in to take the draw. The puck was dropped and Eric battled with the Boston center and eventually Eric knocked the puck into the corner where another intense puck battle began. The puck was won much quicker this time by Nathan Kanya and he tried to just get the puck down the ice with a clearing attempt but the puck was held in at the line. With only ten seconds to go the defender who kept the puck in threw towards the Ranger goal because there were literally nine players in front of the net, including the goalie, and he thought the goalie would never see the shot. As it turns out the puck hit a Bruins’ forward and caromed into the net for a goal and the game was tied at nine with 8.3 seconds left.
Instead of putting their heads down and giving up, the Rangers won the very next face-off and the puck ended up on Eric Nero’s stick with four seconds left. He was just inside the blue line where he just hammered a slap shot, while the puck was on edge, towards the goalie. This looked like a routine play for the Boston goalie, but because the puck was on edge, the goalie had a little bit of trouble with it. The puck came towards his glove and when the goalie reached out for the puck, it hit the bottom of his glove, changed directions, and rolled over the goal line into the net just before the goalie could clear it away with only .8 seconds left. The crowd erupted at that moment. Eric Nero and the rest of his teammates jumped up and had a huge celebration in front of their bench. At the same time, there were multiple Boston players, including the goalie, that were either hanging their heads down or crying in disappointment. After the last eight tenths of a second had past, the whole Rangers team was celebrating with their goalie by their net. After the celebration, both teams lined up for the ceremonial hand shake at the end. After the hand shake, both teams left the ice and went into their respective locker rooms.

The next game for the Rangers would be the number one seed in the tournament, the Minnesota Warriors. The Warriors had a much needed off game two games ago because they are the top seed and returned to action for their previous game against Nebraska, who they defeated rather easily in a 6-2 game. The Rangers are coming off an emotional victory against Boston in which they won 10-9. The winner of this round-of-seven game will advance to the final four. Both teams have never reached the round-of-thirteen until this season. To continue the tradition, Eric and Nathan both ate a piece of bacon before the game.

Within the first period of the game, there were no goals scored but two fights had broken out; Eric and Nathan were both involved in the fights for the first time in their careers. Also in the first period, both teams came out hitting each other whenever they got the opportunity. The hits were 19-17 in favor of the Rangers, who had only 43 hits in the previous 3 games in the tournament. In the second period of play, the Warriors had taken two penalties and were shorthanded by two skaters. The good news for the Warriors was that Nathan and Eric were still in the penalty box for their fights. The bad news was that there was still one significant threat to them on the Rangers’ team. His name is Sean Carlson. Sean was injured a couple of weeks earlier and this was his first game back since the injury. So, on the faceoff, the puck was hit back towards the point where the Rangers took possession of it. After about thirty seconds of passing the puck around, it came to the stick of Sean in front of the net after a shot was taken from the point. As soon as the puck came to him Sean took a quick shot and scored the first goal of the game and his first goal in a while. The Rangers led 1-0 and were still on a power play. With about ten seconds remaining on the penalty, Sean took a shot from below the goal line and it deflected off of a Ranger player in front of the net and went into the net for another power play goal! The Rangers lead was now 2-0. The score would remain the same for the rest of the second period. Now the Rangers were twenty minutes away from moving on to the final four.

In the third period, it looked like the Rangers were going to shut out the Warriors easily, but then Minnesota had other plans. With about nine minutes left, a Warriors’ defenseman took a shot from the point and it was deflected into the net for a Minnesota goal. The Rangers’ lead was now just 2-1. Just 47 seconds later, the Warriors had the puck, threw it out in front of the net, it hit a Ranger forward, and went into the net for the tying goal. Just like that, in a blink of an eye, the score was tied at 2 apiece. Now the Warriors had all of the momentum and it was showing on the ice. A Warriors’ defenseman had the puck at center ice and decided to dump it in so he could make a quick line change. Instead of going around behind the net, like the goalie thought, it hit the corner and bounced out into the slot in front of the net right onto the stick of a Minnesota player; and he put it in the open net for the go ahead goal. The Rangers trailed 3-2 with only 4 minutes left in the third period. Later, while the Rangers’ net was empty and they had an extra skater on, they were cycling the puck around the Minnesota zone when all of a sudden it came to a wide open Sean Carlson who took a heavy slap shot. Right after the shot was taken, it arrived at the front of the net where Eric Nero tipped it into the net for the tying goal! There was only 28.3 seconds left. Now, they were heading to sudden death overtime.

Starting from the opening faceoff in overtime, the Rangers came out flying. They had chance after chance when finally they received a power play with only 8.2 seconds left in the first overtime and it would carry over into the second overtime as they remain tied at 3-3. Only 20 seconds into the second overtime period, Eric Nero held the puck at the point and decided to pass it to Nathan Kanya. As the puck came to him, Sean took a one-timer and it went wide of the net. Instead of dying behind the net, the puck jumped out in front on the other side of the net and it came to the stick of Sean Carlson who threw it back towards the net and went off of a defender and into the net for the winning goal! The Rangers had done it! They have upset the top seed and are moving on to the final four in the tournament where they will face the number two seeded Alabama Crushers!

The Rangers know what they’re up against when they face the Crushers, but it’s no different than the first four games of the tournament. As usual, Sean, Nathan and Eric each ate a piece of bacon before the game. The Rangers didn’t get off to the start that they wanted especially because they took three penalties and allowed Alabama to score on two of them. The score was 2-0 late in the second period. At this time the Rangers had only 14 shots on goal and 33 hits. With their constant persistence, the Rangers were able to catch a break when Nathan Kanya blasted home a one-time from the point to make it a 2-1 deficit going into the third period. As the clock hit two minutes remaining, the Rangers knew that this could be it for them.
So, as a response, they were battling for the puck in the corner when out of nowhere a huge Crusher player came in and sent Eric Nero flying into the boards head first forcing the refs to call a five minute major penalty and eject the player form the game, but that wasn’t the end of it. Eric didn’t move for several seconds and then people began to worry. All the trainers and some players gathered over Eric as they realized he had been knocked unconscious and had suffered what looked like a broken nose from the hit and the impact with boards. They had to carry Eric off on a stretched, but while he was being taken away, Eric Nero woke up and gave the crowd and his teammates a thumbs up. This really inspired the Rangers because within twenty-five seconds of the hit, Nathan Kanya scored the tying goal to send it into overtime again and they were still on the power play to begin the overtime period. Just a little more than a minute into the overtime Sean Carlson passed the puck to Nathan Kanya who then returned the puck to Sean who took a shot that beat the screened goalie and into the net for his second straight overtime game winning goal! The comeback kids had done it again! They are now moving on to the United States Hockey Tournament Finals! The bad news was that they are going to have to win it all without Eric Nero who is out for the final game with a broken nose and a concussion.

Despite not being able to play in the championship game, Eric Nero ate a piece of bacon with Sean and Nathan. Now, the Rangers were ready to face their final opponent: the Connecticut Wolves. The Rangers know that if they are going to defeat the wolves, then they are going to have to play like they did in their previous two games.

On the opening the faceoff, Sean Carlson was able to win it back to his defensemen and now the final game has begun. Within the first ten minutes, the Rangers were playing exactly like they wanted to because they were out playing the Wolves in that time. Despite being outplayed and outshot, the Wolves were able to get a goal with under a minute left in the first period. The score was 1-0 in favor of the Wolves after one period of play. In the second period, the Rangers were playing exactly how they did in the first period, but this time it was different. Instead of allowing a goal, they scored a goal. They scored the goal after Sean had gotten an opportunity to take a penalty shot after being taken down by a Connecticut Wolves’ player. Sean skated slowly towards the goal, took a wrist shot, and it went top shelf over the glove hand of the Wolves’ goaltender and into the net for the goal! The score would remain tied at 1-1 after two periods of play. In the third period, however, it was the Wolves who jumped out to a great start against the Rangers, but neither team scored a goal in the third period and forced the game into overtime once again for the Rangers.

In the first overtime, both teams were going back and forth with many opportunities to end the game but neither team was able to put the puck into the back of the net. Neither team did score in the first overtime, second overtime, and even the third overtime, forcing the game into a fourth overtime period. In the fourth overtime, the Rangers got the opportunity to go on their first power play of the game. On the power play, Sean Carlson had control of the puck at the point and was looking for someone to pass to. Instead of passing the puck to someone, Sean decided to shoot the puck towards the net to try to get a deflection from a player in front. The player that was standing in front in this situation was Nathan. As the puck came towards him, he stuck his stick out to the side of the net in an attempt to deflect the puck. He did end up deflecting the puck and went through the legs of the Connecticut goaltender and into the net for the game winning goal! The Rangers had done it again! They had come from behind in a game to force overtime and end up winning it on a Nathan Kanya power play goal! The Rangers have done it!
They have won their first ever United States Hockey Tournament Championship and now they will be awarded the MVP of the tournament award and the Championship trophy. The MVP award was given to Nathan Kanya for his leadership and excellent play during the tournament. When they getting ready to give away the championship trophy, Nathan went up to it, lifted it into the air, and gave it directly to Eric Nero in honor of him not being able to play in the championship game. After Eric had the trophy in his hands, the rest of the team gathered around him and continued the celebration.

While the team continued the celebration in the locker room, they all shared a piece of bacon and now it was official: the PA Rangers had won it all. They have overcome all of the odds to win it all and now they can relax and hope that Eric Nero will be able to play at the start of next season.