#117

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The first overtime ended 0-0.

The locker room was so filled with the players’ heavy breathing and sweltering heat that it felt suffocating.

Drops of sweat from unknown sources splattered onto the floor, and some players leaned against the wall, panting, as if they didn’t even have the strength to take off their skates. Everyone was too exhausted to utter a single word.

Shin Ho-jae lowered his right hand to untie his skate laces. However, even hooking his finger around the lace was difficult; after several failed attempts, he eventually gave up on taking them off.

He rolled his eyes to look around. Du-min’s knee, which was being iced, was already swollen and filled with fluid, and Hyeong-hun was stemming the bleeding from a chipped front tooth. The older players sitting next to him couldn’t even bow their heads due to back injuries.

Including regulation time and overtime, the game had been going on for 80 minutes, and the ice time for the key players, including Shin Ho-jae, was approaching nearly 40 minutes.

“Icing and painkiller injections have their limits. If they play any more, the aftereffects could be permanent, and they might not be able to play as athletes anymore. All injured players must be pulled!”

『I know, I know! Just give me a little more time to think!』

At the medical staff’s words, Peter frowned in agony, lost in thought. His face sank darkly as he looked at the injured areas of each player.

Just then, Yuk Du-min spoke up in a loud voice so everyone could hear.

“Coach, we can play!”

“Yuk Du-min, you….”

He could hear Ji Min-chul trying to stop him right next to him, but Du-min ignored him and spoke even louder.

“It already hurts anyway. Playing another 5 or 10 minutes won’t make a big difference. If that’s the case, I’d rather rest after we win!”

His expression was unusually determined. Following Yuk Du-min’s voice, an atmosphere of agreement spread among the others. Peter, who had been repeatedly rubbing his chin, asked seriously.

『…I will check one last time. This isn’t your only chance. The World Championships are in a few weeks, and the Winter Olympics are next year.』

“This might be the last time we play with this specific lineup. I want to see it through to the end.”

It was Lee Sang-gon.

At his words, all the players nodded once more. Advisor Park Nam-woong, who had been standing a step back, felt his eyes grow moist. He quickly turned around to wipe his eyes, fearing the players might notice.

『Ho-jae.』

Peter approached Shin Ho-jae.

Due to a shoulder injury, Ho-jae hadn’t been able to raise his arm properly and had barely played in the first overtime. Peter knew that one reason there had been no goals was that Shin Ho-jae hadn’t been able to leave the bench.

Everyone’s gaze shifted toward him. Ho-jae lowered the hand he had been icing and nodded.

“I can do it.”

His shoulder hurt, of course. It was to the point where he couldn’t even lift his arm properly, but by minimizing his time on the ice during the first overtime and repeating a cycle of eight painkiller injections and icing, it had become easier to move than before.

Of course, it wasn’t that he had healed; it was because the eight doses of painkillers had caused his muscles to temporarily forget the pain, but that was enough.

『I’ll ask you once more. If you overdo it today, it could affect your future career. Are you still okay with that? Are you ready to charge toward the trophy, even if it means risking everything?』

Ho-jae first locked eyes with Lee Sang-gon. Following him, Du-min, Min-chul, Hyeong-hun, and the other players were all looking at him with the same expression.

They were all thinking the same thing. Even he, whose hand wouldn’t move, felt the same.

“I want to win. Right here, today, with my team.”

At Ho-jae’s answer, the players all shouted and banged their sticks on the floor. Seeing this, Ho-jae grinned. Everyone had lost their minds. It seemed as if dopamine was pouring out in proportion to their injuries.

Not just Shin Ho-jae, but every single player was prepared for surgery after today’s game. Surgical procedures were something athletes naturally avoided. Recovery took a long time, and there was no guarantee that surgery would lead to a perfect cure.

Nevertheless, they were of one mind. They desperately wanted to lift the trophy with the teammates they were playing with right now.

Nodding deeply, Peter tapped his hockey stick on the tactical diagram of the rink drawn on the floor. The players, who had been cheering wildly, instantly focused with serious faces.

『We settle this within five minutes of the second overtime starting. Let’s do this with the mindset that if we don’t score within five minutes, it’s over.』

Everyone nodded with determined expressions. A coach knocked on the locker room door to announce the remaining time.

“Five minutes until the game resumes!”

As Peter reached out his hand, all the players reached into the center. It was time for the chant. Choi Yong-su, who was leaning on crutches, gestured toward Shin Ho-jae with his chin and smiled.

“You should do it, Ho-jae. You’re our captain.”

“Let’s win!”

“Let’s win!”

Following Shin Ho-jae’s lead, the players, Peter, Advisor Park, and the coaches all shouted together at the top of their lungs.

＊＊＊

In a corner of the B-designated seats at the Gangneung Ice Arena where the final was being held, a middle-aged man with his padding zipper zipped up to his chin in April shook an empty can and asked.

“Oh, I’m out of beer. What should I do? Should Dad go buy some quickly?”

“What are you talking about? The overtime starts in one minute!”

The young-looking girl sitting right next to him immediately scolded him. The area around the two, who appeared to be father and daughter, was a sea of red. Because they had rushed to get tickets, they hadn’t been able to buy seats where Blue Wolves fans gathered.

In the middle of it all, she wore a blue uniform over a large hoodie and had a slogan towel of the same color wrapped around her neck. One might have felt intimidated among fans cheering for the opposing team, but she was proudly displaying her status as a Blue Wolves fan from head to toe.

The man smacked his lips in regret.

“I should have bought more beer….”

“Honestly. Dad, do you come to the stadium just to drink?”

“I thought I bought plenty… I didn’t know there would be two overtimes. Ah, I can’t take it! Dad will be right back! Surely the game won’t end within five minutes!”

“Ugh, do whatever you want. Don’t come crying to me if it ends in five minutes and you regret it.”

“I’ll buy a cola too.”

“Zero PepX. Because that one is blue.”

“Got it, sweetie.”

After patting the girl’s head, the man quickly grabbed his wallet and stood up.

The girl shook her head from side to side and put a wireless earbud in one ear. Her fingers were busy searching for a YouTube ice hockey broadcast channel on her phone. Since she was used to watching games via broadcast, watching the game live felt a bit boring, so she had been listening to the commentary in one ear since the middle of the first period.

She was a new fan who had just entered the world of ice hockey this season.

She first became interested through a short video of Shin Ho-jae circulating in the community, and after the ejection incident during the practice game against the Tigers, she fell for ice hockey like a gentle rain soaking through clothes.

However, it had already been three years since she dropped out of high school and stopped leaving the house. She hadn’t dared to step outside just to watch a sporting event in person. Still, thanks to YouTube live streams, she hadn’t missed the fun of interacting in real-time with community members.

Today, the final game, was the first time she had come to watch in person.

She hadn’t budged even when she heard that the players had pooled their money to bring back the fired Coach Peter, or that Coach Peter was spotted in the stands at every game. But her resolve finally broke when she saw a post by a veteran hockey fan in the community titled, ‘This might be the Blue Wolves’ last season….’

As she pressed the play button, the familiar voice of the announcer began to sound through the earbud. The girl immediately listened intently.

─Hello, Asia League fans. We are here at the Gangneung Ice Arena, where the final game is taking place. In a few moments, the second overtime between the HI Tigers and the MJ Blue Wolves will begin. Our players must be very exhausted.

─Yes, that’s right. They have already played 80 minutes of a game that consists of three 20-minute periods, totaling 60 minutes. They probably don’t even have the strength to grip their sticks right now. Nevertheless, our players are standing on the ice with a single-minded obsession to claim the trophy.

─I never imagined we would see the Korea Derby again in the final game. Commentator Kim must be feeling particularly emotional.

─Yes. The Tigers and Blue Wolves players are all my juniors. When domestic teams first participated in the Asia League, I thought the wall of Sakhalin and Hokkaido would be impossible to break, so I am deeply moved to see domestic teams in the finals.

─Truly, the future of Korean ice hockey is bright. Ah, as we speak, the players from both teams are entering the rink. Commentator Kim mentioned earlier that the players must be exhausted, and perhaps because of that, both teams are putting out their aces for the first face-off.

─Exactly. Both teams will want to end the overtime quickly. Since the Asia League finals have unlimited overtime until a winner is decided, without a shootout, the burden on the players is significant. In the NHL finals, there have been cases that went as far as a fifth overtime. Because it’s played in a sudden-death format*, a single goal decides the match!

─The first face-off puck drop of the second overtime will be between Shin Ho-jae and Na Myeong-il. Huh…? What is that on Shin Ho-jae’s glove? …Is that tape?

*A game that ends immediately upon a goal being scored.

Hearing the announcer’s words, the girl quickly turned her eyes to the phone screen. She saw a comical sight: black duct tape wrapped tightly around Shin Ho-jae’s right glove.

“……What is that?”

As she muttered to herself, the voice of a middle-aged man suddenly came from behind her.

“He wrapped it around his glove so he wouldn’t lose his stick.”

Glancing back, she saw a middle-aged man with the aura of a true veteran explaining it to his companion. He was wearing the black hiking gear common among middle-aged men, making it hard to tell which team he supported. The girl discreetly pulled out her earbud to eavesdrop on his voice.

“Choi Yong-su did that two years ago at the World Championships when they were fighting for the world title. Looks like Shin Ho-jae learned that from Choi Yong-su.”

“That’s insane….”

The girl covered her mouth and accessed the community with one hand.

It was to share her exploding emotions with the Blue Wolves fans in the community.

Meanwhile, at the red line in the center, Shin Ho-jae lowered his waist. The puck was held in the referee’s hand.

Just by bending his waist, beads of sweat formed on his temples.

His shoulder hurt as if it were breaking. He clenched his teeth so hard against the pain that his jaw joint began to ache. If he hadn’t been wearing a mouthguard, his teeth would have cracked long ago.

Shin Ho-jae looked down at his hand gripping the stick.

Just before leaving the locker room, he had asked Choi Yong-su to tape his glove along with the stick. Since he couldn’t put much strength into his arm and hand, it was to prevent him from accidentally dropping the stick during the game.

Shin Ho-jae exhaled slowly. The drop of sweat sliding down his cheek and landing on the helmet buckle felt as vivid as if a giant camera were zooming in on it.

Whew….

Shin Ho-jae could tell that he was now completely focused.

The black hardened rubber dropped from the referee’s hand. Shin Ho-jae’s eyes flashed sharply, and he swung his stick half a beat faster than the opposing player.

Clack! The sticks collided. The puck belonged to the Blue Wolves.

118 – PUCK DROP