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Enjoying hockey in all forms

I will be the first to admit, at some point last week, I walked into the office in the morning and started my day in what has become my tradition, stopping by to say hello to the news editor and to her boss. Her boss was kind enough to remind me that I had made a comment about a week earlier or so that the sports section should be covering the upcoming Pigs-N-Heat game.

Of course the managing editor thought this was a great idea and he reminded me that I had, in fact, made the suggestion, and, since the Michigan Tech hockey team was out of town, I should head up to the MacInnes Student Ice Arena Saturday night for the big event.

I admit, in my own head, I scoffed at the suggestion. On the outside, I said I would go, and planned out briefly the type of story this would need to be.

As I made my way to the Mac on Saturday, about 15-20 minutes prior to game time, I was still figuring this would be some small event with about the attendance of your average Jeffers Jets game or something more along the lines of an average Houghton Gremlins hockey game.

In the immortal words of Illidan Stormrage from World of Warcraft: I was not prepared.

My expectations that I could just drive up and find a parking spot were sorely mistaken. There were no spots in the main lot, or the one next to the Gates Tennis Center. I ended up grabbing one back by the medical center that I was lucky enough to find, delaying my arrival in the arena.

I tried to get one of the people I assumed were volunteers to let me in one of the side doors since I now felt rushed, but was informed that I needed to go around to the front entrance.

The entrance was where it began to sink in just how big this crowd was going to be.

There was a line out to the main entrance of the Student Development Complex. I apologize to anyone I accidentally bumped and confused as I attempted to work my way into the line so that I could get into the arena.

After I made my way up to the press box, I sat down the the pamphlet of rosters that was handed out at the door while I listened to the Michigan Tech pep band. Seeing as this was my first experience with this event, I had no idea what to expect and was surprised to see that both squads were broken up into an “A” squad and a “B” team.

As I made my way down the “B” team, the Leftover Heat, one name caught my eye immediately: Brian Ross. I played hockey with Brian growing up on travel teams up until high school, when he attended Hancock while I was at Houghton. I could not help but laugh when he found himself alone with goaltender Darick Coponen and then scored a goal in the first period.

I walked the concourse during the first intermission and ran into multiple people who were happy to see me there and inevitably asked if this was going to end up in the Gazette.

One friend told me a story about his young daughter that really struck home for me. He informed me that they arrived at the rink, his daughter started conducting the pep band before they entered the building. Apparently that is her favorite thing to do at Huskies’ games. Just as her mother and father noticed what she was up to and were about to explain that the band would not likely be there, they could hear the sounds that informed them the band was in fact there and already in full swing.

As the “A” teams took the ice for their warm-ups, I took a look at the rosters for both. The first thing I noticed was the number of Calumet Wolverines who were participating. Then I noticed something else: family members competing against each other.

I was hooked.

I watched the second and third periods far closer than I had expected to. I was looking for certain plays to take place and when they did, I made notes of them. Soon, I realized I was treating this event like any other hockey game. I had to back up and remind myself that this game was for an important cause and that mattered more than the game itself.

After the game, I interviewed Tom Hyrkas of Team Police. We caught up with each other after the interview as he had grown up playing with and against my younger brother and remembered having me around the locker room as my father coached some of those teams along the way.

When all was said and done, the entire experience was a blast. I enjoyed watching it as much as I could see the guys had fun competing in it. You never know when something will resonate with you, and certainly Saturday night did for me.

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