“Hold ’em!” Hoyt cried as he got to his feet and skated to the penalty box.
It was a deliberate foul which had obviously saved almost a sure goal as Chester had been on top of the net. The puck was faced-off not far from the cage and a furious mix-up resulted. It was now five men against Hallstead’s six and Parker’s entire attention was devoted to the defense of its goal. Rudie, in the thick of the fight, felt an elbow thud against his stomach and wondered whether it was accidental. That was the trouble ... after Hoyt’s reference to these things, a fellow was super conscious of everything that was happening to him ... trying to figure out when he was being done dirt or whether it was unintentional. Hallstead figures loomed on both sides of him and the puck was down there between a tangle of feet and smashing sticks. Why not try one or two of Hoyt’s pet tricks? He was being roughed plenty. Now, if he could get his stick down ... and shove his foot, just so...!
“Yea!”
The crowd was yelling at Rudie’s phenomenal recovery of the puck, emerging from a wildly struggling group near his goal, upsetting two Hallstead men as he did so. Rudie skated around behind his own goal, heart in his mouth, afraid that the referee would call a foul on him. But the official had evidently thought developments the natural outcome of the hot skirmish. Besides he, Rudie, had the reputation of an extremely clean player.
“I got away with it!” he told himself, as he skimmed down along the sideboards.
The great Maltby cut across the ice with the idea of heading him off. Rudie saw him coming out of the corner of his eye.
“I’ll try another Hoyt stunt,” he thought. “Maltby’s going to try to jam me into the boards. If I can only stop dead and let him shoot past, then shoulder him...!”
Rudie set his skates in the ice; Maltby almost on top of him, hurtled past, smacked up against the sideboards, rebounded and was hit jokingly by the man he had pursued. Maltby went down in a thudding heap and Rudie recaptured the puck, continuing his dash down the ice with Parker rooters going crazy.
“This is a cinch!” Rudie told himself, exultantly. “Hoyt was a hundred percent right ... this knowing how to take care of yourself ... out-roughing the other fellow ... is what counts in this game!”
Hallstead’s defense men were rushing back into position, having been in Parker’s territory, trying to help their team score a second goal. Rudie, seeing them almost upon him, fired a shot at the goal but the puck was caught by the broad blade of the goalie’s stick and shoved to the side. Here Ed Compton and Lee Burrell, Parker wings, lunged in and did battle with the defense men for possession of the little black disc. As they did so, Hoyt’s two minute penalty was up and he came flashing out of the box to aid team-mates who had been carrying the attack to an astounded Hallstead. Ed got the puck away from a Hallstead man behind the Hallstead cage, and made a perfect pass-out to Rudie who had roamed in the front area. Rudie blazed away at once and sent the puck whizzing past Hallstead’s goal tender, waist high, for the goal that tied the score, 1 to 1.