Third period was getting messier; the Bruins were getting rougher. Not better, but they were starting to take people out a bit more, and the last hit rang Kyle's bell. There was a foul on that and another Bruins player in the box, for two minutes at least. He was about a minute in from his last shift, drenched in sweat like the other guys, sucking down water and breathing before the next shift and his just came up early. 

"Watch it out there, these guys are getting ugly, and they're gonna be making it worse on your line, Landry," Dubois told him. He had a way of communicating the tactics directly to Jared, keeping him in the loop on what to do, though others could hear it. "This is your time to shift tactics again, I want you to see if you can break past and score from the center. Even if we don't score, the shooting should unnerve them and force them to react. Kozlow, Montgomery, I want you to be there to take the puck if it bounces back and make that shot. Strong finish, defend in by keeping it on their ice. We've got five minutes left, put this game in the coffin and nail it shut!"

The play stopped for a moment with a whistle for icing, and that's when the change happened, Montgomery on a face off on his side; Jared nearby to take the puck if he won it. It was a blink and the puck hurtled back to him, and he had it and started driving, with a clear view of where and how he'd shoot, seeing the lane and the goalkeeper distracted-- and them a flash of pain as his jaw took a bad hit from the butt end of a stick that made him go down, spitting blood out, even as the ref started blowing the whistle. One of the Bruins players went to the box with a smirk, but it was another powerplay for the Bears.

"You okay man?" yelled Gabe, Montgomery, and Jared grunted, "Yeah, I'm good. Let's do this." 

There was some booing and cussing from the Bears side, but that was a rush heard in the distance as they lined up for a faceoff in the powerplay.

The Bruins seemed to realize that three-zero was a bad result to go home with, and the power play defense was furious; they subbed in defensively minded wings and tried to stop the whole thing. Even with the skating at full velocity and the passing razor-sharp, they were having a hard time breaking it down. When Dubois subbed out Montgomery and Kozlow, he waved at Jared but Jared shook his head; Coach seemed to accept that. 

Puck to the backboards, and Jared flew into it alongside a Bruins player trying to ram him against the boards, but he managed to twist it so that guy got smashed against the plexiglass instead -- years of skating gave him the edge there, using the momentum to disorient the other guy while he took possession. He passed back to a guy named Meyer, a second line wing, swung around the goal and took the puck back from Meyer.

The move worked, he hooked the puck right into the net and the sirens went off. There was a bumping of gloves in celebration as he went off his last shift of the game, after putting in a minute and a half on the ice but getting a damn goal against the bastards. 

His jaw hurt like hell though. It was nothing compared to all the guys howling in the Bears' box, pounding his back.

--

"So yeah, the doc said no fracture, thank god. Getting that thing wired would have hurt," he told a guy in first period, English IV AP, for what felt like the millionth time. Beating the Bruins down was no mean feat -- the Bears were supposed to go down ugly, but instead Carl stopped every shot, which was the mark of superior goalkeeping and heretofore unknown in Buchanan High School Hockey, and Jared came out with two assists and a goal to his name, as well as a huge bruise on his jaw where he'd taken a hockey stick to it. He came from a place where wounds taken in battle, hockey that is, were no big deal. "I mean, Kyle's the guy with the concussion."

His mom wasn't entirely happy to see him beat up like that, because she'd been thinking he'd take it easy on hockey and worry about getting into college, but she seemed resigned to the whole affair; Jared Landry, hockey, inseparable, even in a place like California.

Carl had texted, "I love being a winner! :D :D :D" later that night, and there was no doubt what happened there. Jared was happy for his buddy, even while he and Kyle spent the rest of their damn night in a hospital getting X-rayed, cat scanned and all kinds of other shit done to them. So he missed the victory party Carl and the rest of the team were having and spent the next day sleeping off the game, which was a bruising ordeal even when you didn't take one to the head.

But by Monday, he was good, back in school and ready to go. Naproxen numbed the bruise pain and helped with the swelling, which he used very judiciously. The bell rang, class started and morning announcements got read off on a TV screen, with the commentator going, at the end, "Meanwhile, we were just wondering what Coach Dubois is feeding those guys and if maybe we could get some for the football team next year. Next hockey game is a home game against the Santa Clara Sabretooths, and I think we speak for everyone when we say, 'Maul 'em, Bears!'" That kind of produced a cringe.