The Goalie Bet novel · Chapter 29 of 32

Chapter 29: The Frozen Four Berth

I'm going to tell this part the way it happened, because the highlights have it wrong.

We lost the semifinal in Denver on a Thursday and everybody knew the season was over.

Then the conference filed a protest about the officiating.

Nobody thought it would go anywhere. It went somewhere.

Wednesday the ruling came down. The semifinal was vacated and replayed.

The berth was back on the table.

They played it Saturday in Minneapolis at a neutral site with a neutral crew.

Logan watched from the bench in a jacket with his leg straight out.

He wasn't on the roster. He wasn't in pads. He was a spectator in a suit.

Wade scored in the second and the freshman goalie made thirty-one saves and they won it 2-1.

The horn went and the bench emptied and the building came down.

Logan got up and stood at the boards with both hands on the glass.

He didn't go on the ice. He couldn't.

I watched from the training room door at the end of the tunnel.

Afterward the locker room was chaos and I stayed out of it.

I was in the training room putting tape back in the drawer when the door opened.

The coach came in with his jacket open and his tie loose.

"Kline."

"Coach."

"I want to say something and then I'm going to leave."

"Go ahead."

"I read the file. The one you filed in April."

"I know."

"I read it before I put him in. That night, in the office, before warmups."

I stood there with the tape in my hand.

"I read it and I decided it didn't matter."

"Okay."

"That's the part I'm not saying to anybody else."

"Okay."

"I'm sorry."

I set the tape down.

"I heard you," I said.

"Don't thank me."

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