It is 7:30 AM and your team is about to take the ice for one of those “friendship” games as they are being called the last few years. So if you are an 11-year old boy, you are anxious to get on the ice. It is the first game on a Sunday and your parents have already packed the car.
The ice is clean and the team has gathered around the door waiting for those refs. Over the loud speaker, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” is just starting to play. So what do 15 11 year old hockey players do.
They all start to sing “Sweeeeet Caroooline-oh-oh-oh”. As the refs came out of the locker room, the 2001 Rapid Fire Black players took the ice. They kept on singing “soo goood” and their parents started to sing back “oh-oh-oh”. They didn’t stop singing until they had thrown their extra sticks into the bench.
Such is summer hockey in Minnesota. It is not always about the winning. It is about kids playing hockey and having fun and their parents joining in How can you buy such a memory?
The Rapid Fire went on to beat the Milwaukee Phoenix 4-1 in the first game Sunday at the USA International Cup played at the Super Rink.