[2127 words, ready for grading]

Note: I was planning to do the S77 piece in a single chapter, but it ballooned in length to the point where I had to split it into multiple chapters. Enjoy!

---

Anastasia Söderström was nervous.

None of her pre-game preparation routines had been materially different than what she would normally go through to get ready for a big game, but there was a big difference when it came to tonight's game. This game wasn't for the Detroit Falcons, or even for a junior national team. This game would be her first start for the Calgary Dragons in the SHL and something of an audition for her future. All her family and friends would be watching this game at home on television, and she wanted to make them proud. She stood bent over in the dressing room hallway, trying to clear her mind and remember the lessons she'd learned across the last few seasons and over her entire life.

Square to the shooter. Trust your defenders to dig the puck from the corners. Stay in your net. Stay low on screens. The tips she'd accumulated ran through her brain like a news ticket.

"Hey there," a voice called, breaking the reverie. It was Rebecca Montagne, the Dragons' veteran starting goalie. "You've got a routine, and I don't want to interrupt it, but I hope you remember to take it all in and enjoy the night. You only get one first SHL game, take some time to just enjoy the show while you can. I love that you're dialed in, helps to avoid the feeling of being dazzled by the lights, but it's your big night too," the older goalie encouraged. Ana nodded and lowered her head again, her nerves kept a little at bay by the calming words. She went back into the dressing room for the coach's final messages. Unlike the chatter that happened before and after the morning skate, everyone was silent. The coaching staff went over the final adjustments they wanted for the first period, and then it was showtime.

Since both her games on this short tour of duty would be road games, Ana wouldn't need to worry about the extra expectations from a rousing player introduction, but she still led the Dragons onto the ice for the pre-game and skated straight to her net, falling into her familiar pre-game routines and rituals that she always did when she went out for the anthems. She stood across the rink from her counterpart, the Aurora's star goalie Rhett "Shaggy" Carpet, as the Canadian anthem played. The lights were brighter and the stakes were higher, but otherwise this was just another game.

Ana was immediately busy once the puck dropped, as the first period saw plenty of good shots between the two teams. She liked games where she was busy over games that had long periods with no action, as she did a better job staying set when there was a lot of action to keep track of. Four minutes into the first period, the Aurora went on the power play when the captain Frøya Solberg took a slashing penalty, and Ana was busy with the puck being played in her end. Just before the power play was about to end, the puck was played back to the blueline where Jay O'Neil got off a wrist shot that fooled her through traffic and ended up in the back of the net. Her first goal against in the SHL, and even though it was a tough play that would have beaten a lot of goalies she still couldn't help her competitive spirit.

The rest of the first period passed without incident, and in the second period the Aurora started to ramp up the pressure. Seven minutes into the frame, the Dragons went on the power play after a Juan Tymer penalty when a missed shot was passed around the back of the net by the Winnipeg defenders to set up a breakout. The puck ended up making it onto the stick of Lias Ekholm-Gunnarsson and Ana's compatriot made no mistake, blasting a slapshot off the rush that beat the young goalie on the stick side to double Winnipeg's lead. Two minutes later, Winnipeg scored again when they got another power play and the cycle paid off for a 3-0 lead. Heading to the dressing room after 40 minutes, the Aurora had put up 32 shots to Calgary's 20. The Dragons coaches spent the intermission trying to come up with some offensive strategies to try and finally get a puck past Rhett Carpet, and Ana tried to keep her head in the game and not think about the goals she'd let in.

Unfortunately, Calgary came out flat again in the third period and only managed to direct 8 more shots towards the goal in comparison to the home team's 22 attempts, and two more goals got past Ana to none for Calgary, but when the final buzzer sounded she knew she'd done the best she could. Even in the 5-0 loss, she'd made 49 saves for a .910 save percentage, an admirable effort for someone playing their first game at the highest level. The postgame media was understandably centred on her experiences in the big leagues for the first time, and Ana did her best to just tell things like they were, letting her awe at this opportunity shine through in her answers.

Four days later, Ana was back between the pipes for Calgary in a road game against the Edmonton Blizzard. This would be her last chance to show her stuff before going back to the SMJHL, so she wanted to make this game count, even if she hadn't gotten to play in front of the home fans on this callup. After 40 minutes, the Dragons were in a tight 4-3 deficit against their provincial rival, but in the third period the wheels just came off. A power-play goal in the sixth minute made the score 5-3 Edmonton, but two goals in 36 seconds just after the midpoint of the period ultimately sealed the game and Ana was pulled from the game, the starter Rebecca Montagne coming in to mop up in what ultimately turned out to be an 8-5 loss. It was unfortunate that she'd been pulled, but playing for two and a half years in North America had given her a greater sense of resiliency and she knew she could use this as fuel to work even harder once she got back to Detroit.

"How'd it feel to finally be in the big show?" Taylor's voice rang through the phone once Ana was back at the hotel that night. The two had become fast friends ever since their encounter at the prospect camp, and even though they lived a country apart they still talked and texted online whenever they could.

"It was great! Everything just felt so much bigger at the SHL level, not just how good the players are but also how many coaches and staff and stuff are around the team," Ana gushed. "I just wish there'd been a home game while I was up here so we maybe could have met, but that's just how things go sometimes. I'm flying back to Michigan tomorrow morning."

The two talked a little bit more about the callup and how things were going in their own lives, and Ana felt that funny feeling in her stomach again as they did. Talking to Taylor and laughing with her just felt so natural, and she found herself thinking more and more about the Calgary girl as she got back to her daily routine in Detroit. Her week in the SHL would undoubtedly change the way she played her position, but Ana hoped that it would be for the better.

---

She wouldn't have been able to put a finger on exactly why it was the case, but when Ana got back to Detroit after her callup it was as if a switch had been flipped. Keeping the puck out of the net behind her felt almost effortless in the weeks that followed, and her stats were showing this. In the first game back against Great Falls, she got a shutout, though admittedly a pretty easy one with only 15 shots directed her way, and the Falcons started winning more and more. After some early hiccups, she was doing better with settling into her role as team captain and juggling her eleventh-grade classes with hockey obligations. Players, especially goalies, talked about being "in the zone" when everything was coming naturally to them and they were dialed in to their play, and Ana was discovering what that meant. 

As the calendar flipped over to a new year, the Falcons were battling for position in the closely contested Southern Conference, but some of the buzz around Ana's stats was also starting to get louder, as a single number was brought up: .918. Since some rule changes that had increased offense in the SHL and SMJHL about 10 or 11 years ago, this was the best save percentage that a goalie had managed to put up in the SMJHL in that time. The Detroit offense was also coming into its own after a rough season last year, with Brayden Point having a particularly good year both offensively and defensively. Additionally, while she didn't want to let herself think about it, there weren't really any forwards posting eye-popping offensive numbers outside of the incredibly powerful Maine offense, so the possibility of being in the Fallah race again had cropped up around the local media. Only one SMJHL player had ever won the award twice during their time in the league, so it was a long shot anyway, but not impossible if she could keep up her torrid second half.

A late slide resulted in Ana just missing the save percentage record at .916 and falling out of the top spot for the GAA race, but her GSAA value was still head and shoulders above every other goalie in the league, so she'd at least be a frontrunner to finally win the Cedric Robinson trophy for the league's best goalie that had eluded her two years ago. The Falcons finished with a 38-win season and got the third spot in the conference, setting up a first-round matchup with the Carolina Kraken. Ana's past playoff struggles would never really be out of her mind, but this year should be different; she was playing better than she ever had in her career and was on a hot streak going into the playoffs. Her performance was indeed different, as she posted a stellar .920 save percentage in the team's first-round games, but unfortunately the offense fell flat in the second half of the series, scoring just four goals across the remaining three games to crash out of the first round 4-2. The young Swede would now be down to her last chance to finally win the championship next season before she'd be going up to the big leagues, and she wondered what next season would bring to the table in terms of what kind of shot she'd get.

Ana spent the rest of the spring trying to recover from the crushing playoff defeat and getting ready for her school exams. Even though she was about to turn 18, she was still only in the eleventh grade, so graduation wasn't in the cards yet, but the end of the year always brought heavy workloads and she wanted to put herself on a strong footing for her senior year, both athletically and academically. She'd also be moving out soon and dealing with all the challenges that brought, and she leaned pretty heavily on her older future Calgary teammates for advice on how to handle this life change. 

Even though her junior year in the SMJHL was over, there was still one matter left to resolve, and that was finding out how the award voters had viewed her stellar season. As it turned out, she didn't have to wait long. Ana was on a video call with Taylor while the two were studying - while they were the same age, Taylor was a grade ahead and focused on her diploma exams - when a text came in from her agent Marianne Maltais.

Award noms just came out if you want to take a look. I won't spoil it but here's the link, Marianne's text read.

Still on the call, Ana clicked on the link and scrolled down to the two awards she was interested in. She was a Robinson finalist, that one she saw coming, but then she of course checked the MVP nomination to see who was up for the top honours.

"I'm a finalist for what?"