Frederick glared. This Scotty had the habit of ‘riding’ his opponents, all those who let themselves be ‘ridden’. And Frederick was taking the bait nicely.
“You’ll never get past centre ice!” Scotty predicted, as Frederick captured the puck a few seconds later.
Kirkwood’s substitute left wing said nothing but skated back around his own cage and came out on the other side with a burst of speed. He put more behind his drive than he had ever displayed in a game and the crowd cheered hopefully. At mid-ice a crafty Scotty waited, grinning as he saw his own left wing force Frederick toward the centre, away from the sideboards.
“He’s my meat!” muttered Melville’s star, and hooked out his stick as Frederick tried desperately to pass him. The crook of the stick stole the puck so cleanly from Frederick that he did not realize it was gone for several flashing strides. When he did pull up short, it was to hear the crowd roaring as Scotty, on a scintillating dash into Kirkwood territory, had fired a shot at goal-keeper Chub Roland. Chub fended the puck off with his stick but Scotty, following up, clubbed the disc viciously and sent it flying past Chub into the net for the first goal of the game!
“There, Freddy!” taunted Scotty, as the Melville stands went crazy with joy. “That’s how to play hockey!”
A hot retort was on the tip of Frederick, the Great’s tongue when Coach Howard hastily threw his regular forward wall back into the game.
The first period ended with Melville leading, one to nothing, and Rand Downey, whose contempt for the fancy skater exceeded that of his team mates, had certain things to say to Frederick in the locker room.
“You let that baby talk you out of a score,” he branded. “He got you so up in the air you didn’t know whether you had a puck or an egg at the end of your stick.”
“He won’t get the puck away from me again!” Frederick replied.
“He won’t have to,” snapped Rand. “All that Melville bunch has to make is one goal to win their games. Here we are, playing our fool heads off and you...!”