Prompt 1:

Our whole team is nervous going up against the Hall of Famers because... well because we remember what happened last time. It's like playing against the Monstars minus the body horror. The only difference is that this time we know what to expect, and we know that if we play perfectly we can hang with them. While this simulation in a simulation seems to have given them some of their youth back, they still have a stamina curve similar to the Grizzled Vets. So if we can weather the first two periods, the third is really our chance.

That was the plan of course, but somehow we still weren't ready. They put one past us on the second shift of the game, and we were down 1-0 in under two minutes. That goal was the kick in the ass we needed though, and we stayed with them for the rest of the first.

The second was an absolute war of a period, with nobody giving an inch. During one of our penalty kills, an unfortunate broken stick when O'Shea tried to clear our zone put us in awkward positioning. They capitalized again, and we were down 2-0 half way through the second. The sound of Jobin cracking his stick off the post was what we needed to really start our offensive push, and from there to the end of the period that's what we did. We had them in their zone for huge stretches, culminating in Duncan smashing one home in front as I was just barely able to sweep it into the crease from behind the net. End of the period, we're down 2-1.

Unfortunately for the Hall of Famers, we kept our press up for the third too. Jobin helped us catch them on a bad line change with an unexpected stretch pass that hit Sutherland perfectly at their blue line. Streaking in alone, he went five-hole to tie the game. If we were starting to get tired from our relentless attack, all of that went away when we were back in position to win.

I gotta be honest, our last-minute winning goal was pretty amazing... I just wish I could say I was on the ice for it. It doesn't always happen like the movies, ya know? Sometimes you play a great game top to bottom, but when the storybook moment happens, you just happen to be on the pine. Ah well.

Anyways, in the final minute, Timonen made a great block in front of our net, kicking off a huge scrum in the slot as the puck bounced around. Everyone was throwing cross checks and tackling anyone in an opposing jersey to try and get the puck to safety. It shot out back towards the Hall of Famers D, which sprung Topalo into a footrace against their D. He was able to corral it and fight them off his back to get it deep into their zone and frozen in the corner. Taking slash after slash, he bought time until a hobbling Timonen was able to join the attack. Topalo managed to kick it back to him, he caught a glimpse of Williams who came off the bench and into the zone like he was fired out of a cannon. The Hall of Famers weren't able to pick him up fast enough, and he ripped a shot top corner with 25 seconds left to cap off the tournament.

I was going wild on the bench, and we got to leave the simulation as grand champions.