Lucky Number Thirteen

Last week our Katimavik group got the chance to see an Omenica Ice hockey game at the local Vanderhoof Arena. It was a playoff game against the Huston Luckies and it was their final home game. Anthony’s work partner (I guess mine too but they didn’t really like me to much since I wanted to do more than scrub the arena windows) gave him the go ahead to use a key and sneak in the back Zamboni door to see the game free of charge. It was their way to thank us for all of our hard work, but in a lapse of communication it was not told to the security people, for the game, that we were invited by the arena manager and we were forced to pay a whole six dollars fee. For a playoff game it was extremely dead. There was maybe one hundred people in the crowd and that was including the Katimavik group. Puzzled we waited for the people to arrive and the start of the game. The game started but still only a few dozen others had joined us to cheer on our local hockey team.
Forty-three seconds into the first period the Huston Luckies scored a goal. It was at this point that another fan leant over to me and informed me that in the last three games the Omineca Ice had been outscored twenty-eight to six. After hearing that statement I prayed for a miracle which would never come. For the next two hours I wanted a hockey team get out played, out smarted and demolished. Half of the Ice’s players were either suspended for misconduct or they were at a wedding in the Dominican. They were at a clear disadvantage from the beginning. It was so bad that the head coach, for the Ice, found himself in the Beer Gardens instead of on the bench, with his players, during the third period. When it was all said and done they had been slaughtered thirteen to one. For someone who is not a fan of the sport this does not do much to help its cause. My future with this sport is grim. I may watch the gold medal hockey game for the Olympics on the T.V...but that is only if I am forced.