Personal Narrative: The North American Hockey Tournament

This wasn’t just any ordinary game. My team, The Minnesota Junior Whitecaps, had been invited to play in the biggest hockey tournament of the summer. NAHA, or the North American Hockey Association, holds the NAHA Invitational in Burlington, Vermont over Labor Day every year. Every team hopes to take home the trophy, but individual players hope to leave their best impressions on the ice. What makes the NAHA Tournament so special is the amount of college coaches watching at every game. Every Division I and III team is represented by a coach or scout. So the pressure is on for every game, as every player wants their name to be remembered. The Minnesota Junior Whitecaps started the tournament strong, winning the first four games, and bringing us to the championship game. We all sat anxiously waiting for our turn to take the ice for the biggest game of most of our playing careers. We walked to the bench, and hit the ice. Every corner of the rink was filled with scouts holding clipboards, and pens. We skated our laps, took some warm up shots, and then the puck dropped to start the game. We went back and forth with Jr. Sens, and neither team got any scoring opportunities. Before I felt the game even started, it was already the third period, and the game was still stuck at 0-0. …show more content…
The puck barely hit the ice before the Jr. Sens took possession, and made their toward our goal. Their forwards took the puck below the goal line, and passed it back up top to the defence, and before we could get a stick on the puck, it was already in the back of the net. 0-1.
As the period continued, we were still down by one goal, with just five minutes left in the game. I hit the ice to take the next face off, but I heard my coach yell from the bench,