The goal was not counted; and with the match still a tie, the fight for goals was renewed.
Silver might have been ruled off the ice, but, the referee believing no infraction of the rules had been intended, this was not done.
Merriwell now began to push the work toward the other end of the rink, twice sending the puck for goal, but each time the disk was stopped by Beckwith, whose agility was remarkable for a man of his size. Beckwith was a great football-player, and he showed that he was equally good as a goal-keeper in a hockey-match.
The position of goal-keeper is a hard one, and often thankless. Though Beckwith frequently gained possession of the puck he was never given time or room to pass it down the rink, but was forced to shoot it off to one side, thus preventing another try-for-goal until the rubber could be worked back into favorable position.
Finally Merriwell found the opening he was seeking and drove the puck between the goal-posts, and the score became six for his team to five for Beckwith’s.
“Fellows, we can beat them!” Morgan urged, before the beginning of the next play. “We’ll do it.”
The response was all that he wished, so far as effort went. But Merriwell seemed now to have struck the winning streak. The puck went toward Beckwith’s side, and then farther along by clever lifting and dribbling.
The musical ring of the skates and the sinewy movements of the skaters were inspiring. Bink and Danny lost their heads completely and yelled and squeaked until they were hoarse.
Every inch of the way was hotly contested, and the puck skipping back and forth, the excited spectators could hardly tell for a time in which direction it was really progressing.
Several times there were cries of “off-side,” but Frank saw that his men were doing no off-side play, and the infractions of the rule by other players seemed inconsequential. Once, however, he saw a skater—it was Roland Packard—advance the puck with his skate. Merriwell would have protested against this if the puck had not been checked and sent on toward Beckwith’s goal. The officials did not see the trick of Packard.