Youth hockey event at Wascana Lake gets crashed by the Regina Pats
CBC News | Posted: February 10, 2023 11:45 PM | Last Updated: February 10, 2023
The WHL team took to the ice and played with 40 kids
Playing under the lights on Wascana Lake rink was already inspiring for young hockey players but the surprise arrival of the Regina Pats really motivated them to give it their all.
About 40 kids in Regina's Ehrlo Sport Venture Outdoor Hockey League had just started playing during the Frost Regina winter festival on Wednesday night when a blaring bus horn announced the team's arrival.
"This big, blue bus pulls up and starts honking its horn like crazy, so everybody stops and turns around and it's the Regina Pats bus," said Nathan Clearihue, whose eight-year-old son Corbin was playing.
There was "an explosion of excitement," and the game came to a halt as the Pats players approached the rink.
"As soon as the Pats started coming down to the ice, the [youth] players kind of formed a line and started chanting: 'Go Pats, Go, Go Pats, Go," Clearihue said. "Then the Pats players skated by them and boom they were playing hockey together."
"There was just non-stop chatter, non-stop playing hockey."
Clearihue said the kids started playing harder when the WHL players hopped on the ice.
Corbin was shocked that he got to share the ice with his hero Connor Bedard and the rest of the Regina Pats.
"It was really fun, they would do tricks on you and do passing games with you," Corbin said.
Clearihue is grateful that the entire Regina Pats team joined the young players.
"Of course Bedard deserves all the limelight he's getting, but last night it wasn't just about him," Clearihue said. "It was about all the other players as well and it was a big team group effort and all the kids were eating that up like crazy.
"Corbin was pretty ecstatic about having the players talking to him and passing to him."
Clearihue said Corbin previously got to meet the players at an autograph session the night before but sharing the ice with them will be a memory he'll likely never forget.
"Being able to play with them was in a whole other league," Clearihue said. "It was something else."