“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” That phrase was from one of my favorite hockey players, Wayne Gretzky.  This motto isn’t just incorporated for hockey players, this saying can be used in anyone’s everyday life.  From a job interview to trying to make a new friend, if you don’t try their will be no chance of you ever knowing what would happen.

That phrase had a big impact on me during the Lake Placid hockey tournament in the fall of 2013.  We were on our way to our first game and I was really anxious to play.  We were playing on the 1980 U.S. Olympic ice where the “Miracle on Ice” happened when the United States beat the Soviet Union by a score of 4-3.  When I walked through the rink doors you could really sense the excitement in the air.  In warm-ups or calisthenics my team likes to call them.  You could see it on my teammate’s faces that they were excited to play on that rink.
As the zamboni laid out a fresh wipe of warm water on the ice, I was getting focused. The kind of focused you get when you’re about to take the SATs, I barely said a word.  As we walked on to the clean white ice, you feel like you’re king of the world, then the game began.  I’m a defensemen so I don’t get many chances to score.  My team, the Wheatfield Blades, went up 2-0 over the Yale Bulldogs and I was sitting at the front of the bench, waiting to go out.  I stepped on that ice not knowing what would happen, would I make a great defensive play or screw up the shutout for my goalie?  My heart was pumping so fast it felt like it would just jump out of my body after a while.  Soon later I would get a pass from one of my forwards, so I looked at the net like there was a bullseye on it and I took a shot.
The shot wasn’t very fast I kind of fanned on it.  Usually, when I get the puck on the point I would just dump it into the corner, but not this time.  When I saw the puck go through the goalies five-hole a chill ran down my spine.  “It went in!” I thought to myself, then the red lamp went of and it was official.  I was so excited when I got back to the bench, then they announced my name over the arena.  We went on to win that game 4-1.  Then, when I got back to the hotel, in the fog of the bathroom mirror I wrote in big capital letters, “I SCORED A GOAL!” That saying from Wayne Gretzky has meant something to me ever since I scored that goal on the 1980 Olympic hockey rink in Lake Placid, New York.
But the fun didn’t stop there.  Our team ended up winning the tournament and taking home gold medals as big as saucer plates and a big gold plaque.  We beat the Buffalo Stars in overtime by a score of 4-3, just like the Miracle Team’s score.  But I will never forget the pile of my teammates I jump into after the overtime goal and the picture I got with my dad with all of my stuff in front of the Herb Brooks memorial speech plaque.  He was the coach of the 1980 ice hockey olympic team.  This game was one of your classic underdog games.  The Stars had us beat in points, and I was playing against some of my friends at school in that game so I know there will be another memoir just like mine but from a different perspective of that championship game.