Owls 11, Owls 11.
“What now?” Sarah asked when they returned to the bench. Nish was spraying water directly into his face.
“We pick a single shooter,” said Data.
“Who?” Travis asked.
Data seemed reluctant to say.
“I’ve got to go with Nish,” he said finally.
Nish shook his head. “Like there was ever any other choice.”
Sarah turned to Travis, her eyebrows raised. “Is it ever okay to cheer for the other side?” she asked.
Travis just laughed. There was no answer for that. There was no explaining Nish.
The other side chose Sam. It caught Travis by surprise, because Fahd had played such a great tournament, but Sam was the better regular hockey player and had the good shot.
Sam was first. She went in fast, braked suddenly and slipped the puck through Jeremy’s five hole.
Nish went second. He flew up and blasted a slapshot that went in under Jenny’s arm.
Owls 12, Owls 12.
Sam went again, and scored again, this time on a pretty play where she deked left and scored from the right side, one-handed.
“It’s all up to you,” Data said to Nish.
“I know.”
Nish picked up the puck at centre, moved slowly, then began cutting for the net. He faked and held, and Jenny moved with him, ready to stack her pads. He held still, waiting for the net to open, but Jenny held her position, drifting with him.
She’d obviously been studying Fahd’s play. She was just as patient, just as determined.
Nish ran out of space. He had to shoot. He tried to lift it over her pads, but it was too late and the puck rang off the outside of the goal post and bounced harmlessly away.
Fahd’s Owls had won the 3-on-3 tournament!
The rink erupted, as much in relief as in excitement. It had been an odd feeling, with everyone cheering for the Screech Owls and determined to be happy no matter what the score.
It had been a wonderful game. It had been a difficult tournament. It had been a terrible experience at times. But now, with the murders solved, with the tournament completed, and with the Screech Owls both champions and runners-up, life was returning to normal.
Finally.
The organizers came onto the ice for the presentation. There were gold medals for the winners and silver for the runners-up.
Then they announced the tournament MVP, and to no one’s surprise, it went to Sam.
A woman came out carrying a square, silver-covered box and began to open it.
“Hey,” called Nish. “Maybe it’s a snow globe!”
“Get a life!” snapped Sarah, standing beside him.
But it was not a snow globe. Slowly the woman drew the trophy from the box.
It was a beautiful West Coast native wood carving.
Of a dolphin.
Sam burst into tears as she accepted it. She held it tight with one arm and threw the other around the woman, hugging hard.
The smiling organizers took it for tears of joy.
Everyone else in the rink knew that was only part of the story.
THE END
Ron Devries
Roy MacGregor has been involved in hockey all his life. Growing up in Huntsville, Ontario, he competed for several years against a kid named Bobby Orr, who was playing in nearby Parry Sound. He later returned to the game when he and his family settled in Ottawa, where he worked for the Ottawa Citizen and became the Southam National Sports Columnist. He still plays old-timers hockey and was a minor-hockey coach for more than a decade.
Roy MacGregor is the author of several classics in the literature of hockey. Home Game (written with Ken Dryden) and The Home Team (nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction) were both No. 1 national bestsellers. He has also written the game’s best-known novel, The Last Season. His most recent non-fiction hockey book is A Loonie for Luck, the true story of the famous good-luck charm that inspired Canada’s men and women to win hockey gold at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. His other books include Road Games, The Seven A.M. Practice, A Life in the Bush, and Escape.
Roy MacGregor is currently a columnist for the Globe and Mail. He lives in Kanata, Ontario, with his wife, Ellen. They have four children, Kerry, Christine, Jocelyn, and Gordon.
You can talk to Roy MacGregor at www.screechowls.com.
ALSO AVAILABLE
The Complete Screech Owls Volume 1
ALSO AVAILABLE
The Complete Screech Owls Volume 2
AND COMING SOON
The Complete Screech Owls
Volume 4 Volume 5
in October 2006 in March 2007
Copyright © 2006 by Roy MacGregor
This omnibus edition published in 2006 by McClelland & Stewart
Nightmare in Nagano copyright © 1998 by Roy MacGregor
Danger in Dinosaur Valley copyright © 1999 by Roy MacGregor
The Ghost of the Stanley Cup copyright © 1999 by Roy MacGregor
The West Coast Murders copyright © 2000 by Roy MacGregor
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher–or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency–is an infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
MacGregor, Roy, 1948–
The complete Screech Owls/written by Roy MacGregor.
Contents: v.1. Mystery at Lake Placid–The night they stole the Stanley Cup–The Screech Owls' northern adventure–Murder at hockey camp–v. 2. Kidnapped in Sweden–Terror in Florida–The Quebec City crisis–The Screech Owls’ home loss–v. 3. Nightmare in Nagano–Danger in Dinosaur Valley–The ghost of the Stanley Cup–The West Coast murders.
eISBN: 978-1-55199-239-6
I. Title.
PS8575.G84C64 2005 JC813'.54 C2005-903880-2
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.
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The Complete Screech Owls, Volume 3 Page 31
