14 March 2009

Friday XIII

In the late winter of 1957, Colorado College hockey players attended a diversity education camp on the shores of an undisclosed mountain lake. While they were at this camp to learn about treating others fairly and not dressing up in offensive costumes, they were far more interested in "hooking up" with other attendees at the camp, spreading mono and making sure their recruits were "taken care of." They were, in fact, too busy making out with other campers to notice a young boy out in the middle of the lake, struggling to stay above water. Finally, he succumbs to the cold water and goes under, but the CC players don't even register anything is amiss.

Fast forward to 2009. Again, it's late winter, and the CC players are spreading mono just as though no time had passed. But unbeknownst to those players, they are about to pay for the negligence of the players from long ago.

The young boy that appeared to drown in the lake? He's still alive, fully grown, and is seeking revenge against CC. He has donned a goalie mask and he's got a thirst for blood. His name is Alex Stalock.

The CC Tigers begin what they think is a normal playoff game against the UMD Bulldogs, a team not even in the WCHA back in 1957, a team that struggled the past few weekends against lesser foes, and who appear little threat to the Tigers.

It's no ordinary game. Though it begins slow, the CC players start to notice things aren't quite right. Forward Cody Lampl leaves the game early for a major penalty, and mysteriously disappears. No one can find him, and the Tigers start to worry a bit. Then UMD's Drew Akins takes a slashing penalty, and the Tigers think they're going to mount an offensive assault.

CC's power play unit has no idea what hits them. They pepper the net with shots and yet nothing can break the impenetrable wall. Behind the mask, they hear a voice snarling "You left me to die!!!!"

In the locker room between periods, the Tigers are confused, and one of them brings it up to the coach. As he listens to the story, he visibly pales. "I... I... I thought he was dead!" he stammers.

"You thought who was dead?" Chad Rau asks.

"S-s-s-s-stalock!" And rather than strategize how the Tigers might defeat this monsters, he spends the rest of the intermission telling the story of how the 1958 CC Tigers were killed by a murdering lunatic whose son had drowned the previous summer. "Only one player survived, and he thought it was a dream. But now I know... it's no dream."

The Tigers are so terrified they go into the second period unable to go anywhere near Stalock, allowing Jack Connolly to send Jordan Fulton into their defensive zone to score without hindrance. The team finally musters the strength when they see that the Bulldogs have left Stalock with only 3 players to defend him, but the tenacity of the Bulldogs is unmatched by their opponents. Eric "Traitor" Walsky finally musters the courage to go directly for Stalock, but he's so terrified by Stalock's blocker, which appears to be stained with blood, that he quickly shoots and runs away. The puck ends up in the net, but only due to an unfortunate deflection from a Bulldog skate.

In the third period, the Tigers try once more to muster their courage and defeat the rampaging goalie, who sends Steven Schultz to the penalty box barely alive after he interfered with Stalock, and Stalock strikes his final blow, a post-to-post save on Scott McCulloch that dooms the entire Tiger team to the same fate as the 51 teams before them that have had to pay for the sins of the 1957 squad.

Meanwhile, in a pawn shop nearby, some hockey players are thinking of trying to play another game against the Bulldogs. Behind the counter, Crazy Randy tries to warn them of the danger awaiting...

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