It was the second period. My line mate Mike Sabatini had the puck near our bench. We were at our home rink Pullar Stadium and we were attacking the Michigan Warriors net. The Michigan Warriors had these ugly away uniforms that were mostly dark blue with red on their shoulders. The worst part about the uniforms were their red gloves and pants they wore. It was a two on two rush with a man back checking on me. He was so close I could feel him breathing down my neck. Sabby threw an airborne pass from the top of the right circle that landed back on the ice right before it reached my stick. When I received the pass I was almost right on top of the goalie in front of the net. The goalie saved the puck, but as he saved it I got hit from behind by the back checking player into the goalie. We all fell into the net.
I never have been an aggressive person who looks to start fights. I also wasn't the kind of tough guy that could say I finished them. I had never gotten in a fight before ever. I didn't know how I would even do against this kid. After I had gotten up I knew that I was going to have to fight. My rage and anger had taken over. I had an oh shit moment when I found out who I was going to be fighting. I realized that it was Connor Lyons one of Michigan’s enforcers. The kid was an experienced fighter from Davisburg, Michigan although he stood at 5’9” like myself, he was a thick, strong, and gritty kid. Most hockey players would call him nails because he was so tough.
I grabbed his jersey and shoulder pads with my left hand and we had locked up and were ready to throw punches. We were spinning around in circles trying to get our footing. We had started the fight at the front of the net and when we had gotten our balance we were near the right corner of the rink at the bottom of the right circle. He had thrown a punch that I dodge. As soon as I saw the fist go by my face another one quickly followed. I had found a way to dodge both punches. I realized that I hadn't thrown any punches. I wanted to pick my spots, but more importantly not get hit. I threw a punch to his left eye that knocked his helmet off and reddened his eye. I had frustrated him because I quickly had to deal with another two punches that came my way.
As he threw his punches I ducked my head and looked down towards the ice. He hadn't taken my helmet off so both of his punches hit the top of my helmet. I had escaped his attacks for the moment. I then threw another punch that landed very close to the same spot near his left eye. He then ripped my helmet off, but at this point in the fight we were both very tired. We were both holding out tired, looking for a good time to throw our final shots. I looked at the linesmen during the fight to see if they would step in and stop the fight. The one hollered out.
“Are you boys done?”
I looked back at Connor Lyons who was red in the face and slightly black and blue in his left eye. He had shook his head no at the linesmen.
I tried to throw an upper cut to end the fight, but some how during the fight my left hand had caught the strap of his helmet and his helmet was stuck in-between my hand and his jersey. My upper cut had hit his helmet and it blocked my punch. The next thing I remember is getting pulled down to the ice by my jersey, then both of the linesmen had jumped in and separated us. As we skated to the penalty box I looked over at my bench and all of my teammates were standing up tapping their sticks against the boards. I heard someone yell.
“Fuckin' rights Menta!”
When I got to the penalty box I was greeted by fans clapping and cheering for me.
After the period was over and we were walking back down the tunnel towards our locker room when I was stopped by Coach Bruno, Bruno and I didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. He grabbed me by the arm and said.
“Way to pump that fucker Matty.”
Patted my arm twice.
Then walked away.
I had a sigh of relief I thought I was going to get yelled at. I then knew that I had made the right decision. There was a whole period left to be played, and the fight had given us a momentum boost. I think that momentum is what carried us to win the game. If I didn't fight then maybe we end up losing 3-2. After the game I got undressed while listening to our teams victory song “Timber” by Pitbull and Kesha.
After I had showered and put my black suit with my blue dress shirt and black, blue, and grey paisley tie on I checked my phone. I read a text from my dad that said, “Nice fight! Best one of the year.” as I left the rink to drive home.