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Carissa’s still disoriented once she’s back firmly on her feet (or as firmly on her feet as one can be in ice skates) after being slammed into the glass of the rink. Number 73 has been on her for the entire game and has been getting away with a lot of it; referees not making calls they should be against the opposing team to the distress of fans of and members of Carissa's team alike. The whistle finally blows which means Meghan’s finally ending up in the box. She’s got away with cross checking nearly a handful of times. Meghan’s got away with hooking and slashing that ended up on gloves more than sticks. Cheap tactics that all of which were against Carissa. Quite frankly, she’s pissed.
The whistle comes to an end and play is still in the process of breaking up when Carissa finally locks eyes with Meghan after that last hit. She doesn’t even seem annoyed that she’ll end up in the box for two minutes. Meghan’s smirking and smug. She’s infuriating . Most importantly, she’s not that far away from Carissa.
Carissa knows she should just let the ref skate out to center and make the call. She knows she should just let it alone. However, a bigger part of her wants to not be passive (for once). If Meghan’s going to fuck with her specifically, Carissa’s going to do something about it, damn it.
Using her arm length to her advantage, Carissa has Meghan slammed against the boards before anyone really realizes what is happening. With Meghan’s jersey fisted in her hand, Carissa, fully in Meghan’s face, asks, “What the fuck is your problem with me?”
“I don’t have a problem with you. You’re just an incredibly easy target.”
They’re both surprised when Carissa’s fist makes contact with Meghan’s helmet. Meghan recovers first though, and throws a punch right back. Everyone’s fully aware of what's happening by now, but the action on the ice between the two escalates so quickly that no one can do anything to prevent it.
Punches are thrown during a struggle that has Meghan pushing Carissa backwards so Meghan’s no longer pinned to the boards of the rink. Gloves get lost. Meghan throws a hook that has enough force that it knocks Carissa’s helmet off.
Eventually they’re closer to the center of the ice. The referees have made no motion to break up the fight. The two teams are rivals and this fight clearly has the fans excited. Since this kind of confrontation is not technically against the rules, the referees allow the fight to happen. Carissa’s teammates are hanging back, ready to step in if she ends up getting overpowered but letting her get this aggression out. They know what Meghan’s done to Carissa during play.
Meghan loses her balance during the struggle and pulls Carissa down with her. Literally down on the ice, the two are half wrestling while still managing to throw occasional punches. Carissa definitely has the upper hand, being above Meghan who’s back is pressed against the ice versus Carissa’s being on her knees. Since she has lost her helmet, Meghan’s next hook makes contact with the side of her head. Carissa doesn’t want that to happen again, so her plan of action has Carissa practically straddling Meghan. Carissa sucessfully attempts to pin Meghan's arms to the ice.
Being pinned to the ice doesn’t mean Meghan stills. She still struggles underneath Carissa. When the reality of the position she’s put them in catches up with her, Carissa can feel the heat in her ears from anger spreading for an entirely different reason. God, she doesn’t want to give Meghan that kind of ammunition against her (even if she doesn’t understand what Meghan has against her in the first place). Carissa scrambles to get up and no one has to stop the fight. Carissa’s obvious embarrassment does the job for them.
One of Meghan’s teammates helps her up while one of Carissa’s teammates skates up to her, because she's just standing there now awkwardly. The referee finishes the skate to the center of the ice to finally make the call. All the players are unsure if the penalty call will be just for Meghan’s boarding or if the refs are also going to penalize the fighting and both teams will end up down a player.
In front of the penalty box, the referee signals for boarding while loudly vocalizing, “Number 73, visiting team, 2:00 minutes for Boarding!”
There are no other calls and the fight is not penalized for either team. For some reason unknown to Carissa, Meghan still looks smug like she has no remorse for the boarding or any of the other should have been called penalties against Carissa. It’s not surprising. But what is surprising and infuriating both is Meghan blowing a kiss in Carissa’s direction as she starts to skate to the box.
Carissa tries to follow, angry again after cooling off a bit about Meghan in fact using knowledge from the straddling incident during the fight, but her teammate’s firm hand on the center of her chest stops her. An unspoken That’s a horrible idea. She’s not worth a misconduct .
Carissa sighs and gets her helmet and gloves back on as her team gets ready to go into a power play.