“Good boy!” shouted Hoyt, skating up to slap Rudie on the back. “Now you’re getting the idea! That was great stuff the way you fought your way down the ice!”
Rudie nodded as he skated back into position with the crowd cheering him. If a fellow didn’t care what he did, just played with abandon, it was surprising what he could accomplish. “Cut loose!” as Hoyt had said. Rudie had done this for the first time. Result—one of the few goals he had ever made in actual play.
“A referee overlooks an awful lot,” Rudie decided, “and maybe I was too strict on what I thought constituted a foul anyhow.”
With things breaking one’s way, it was easy to salve one’s conscience. And now his team members were plunging in as the next face-off occurred at centre, using what Hoyt had taught them as the occasion demanded. A spectacular game materialized as this sort of play kept up with members of both teams crashing into the sideboards or taking dizzy spills. There were processions to the penalty box, about evenly divided up as first one individual, then another, was ruled out for two minute periods. And still Rudie led a charmed life; hurling himself into the fray at every opportunity but escaping without penalty. Several times, no less a personage that the great Maltby was sent to the sidelines for fouling Rudie who had fouled him likewise.
“You’ve got it wrong, umps!” Maltby had protested on the last trip. “He should have come along with me! That guy...!”
The first period ended in a tie score and the Parker team, having suddenly found itself, skated from the rink to the roars of the crowd. This might prove to be a real contest after all!
“Boys, you’re simply splendid!” Coach Hogart greeted them. “A little rougher than I’ve ever seen you—but perfectly splendid!”
The old professor was greatly excited. He did not observe Hoyt’s wise wink behind his back, nor the amused grins on several faces. But, by the end of the furiously contested second period, when Hallstead and Parker players almost came to blows over alleged bits of unnecessary roughness, Coach Hogart sensed definitely that a change had come over his boys ... a change which disturbed him not a little....
“Watch yourselves,” he warned. “You’ve held Hallstead to a tie score thus far but you’ve made more trips to the penalty box than in any three other games this year. It’s going to be your downfall if you keep it up ... mark my words!”
“Mark his words!” laughed Hoyt, as the team took the ice for the third and last period. “Professor Hogart means well but he’s no coach! and he never will be. I guess you guys realize now how this game should be played.”