A garbage goal would have been a fitting reward for Dan Clark, considering the moniker he applied to himself for Saturday’s Roughrider Foundation Winter Classic charity hockey game.
Alas, the veteran CFL centre did not figure in the scoring, but his spirits were undampened and his sense of humour was as sharp as the blades he wore at Saskatoon’s Merlis Belsher Place.
“I had a blast,” the 6-foot-2, 310-pounder said. “Being a trash can on ice, it doesn’t get any better than strapping it up with NHL guys, alumni and current players.
“It’s a pretty good time when you get great sponsors and the great people of Saskatchewan on the ice with you.”
Clark was a member of a Rob Bagg-captained team that rallied to tie Brett Lauther’s squad, which ultimately won 8-7 in a shootout.
Over the four quarters — note the departure from the hockey convention of three periods — Clark was the beneficiary and recipient of penalties.
For this occasion, referee Luke McGeough assessed penalty shots as opposed to having the violating player sit out for two minutes during a power play.
Clark was foiled on his penalty shot — not to his surprise, mind you.
“I am terrible at hockey,” he confided in a hallway at the University of Saskatchewan Huskies’ home arena, “and the trash can I’m looking at was way better than I was.”
In fairness, though, the 34-year-old Clark is a virtual novice at hockey.
“When you’re five years old and your dad wants you to be a hockey player and be a goon and then you spend more time on the ice than on your skates, your dad kind of walks out in his cowboy boots and picks you up and says, ‘This is enough,’ ” Clark reflected. “You’re like, ‘It’s time for another sport.’
“I fell once trying to get the puck (on Saturday) but those things are all hand-eye co-ordination. It’s a good thing I could throw the ball between my legs.
“Now it’s a matter of getting better for the next Winter Classic.”
The first Winter Classic — organized by Lauther in conjunction with the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation — was a fund-raiser for KidSport Saskatchewan. Proceeds will be used to remove financial barriers that could otherwise prevent or deter youngsters from playing hockey or football.
“It’s not only great for the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation, but also for the people of Saskatchewan,” said Clark, the Foundation’s Program Scheduler. “It shows that we’re not just a football team. It’s a brotherhood.
“Bringing in alumni and bringing in NHL guys and bringing in community members who sponsor our great Winter Classic, it’s unbelievable.”
The rosters included 11 past or present Roughriders and/or CFL players (Clark, Lauther, Bagg, Mitch Picton, Brayden Lenius, Evan Johnson, Jorgen Hus, Chris Getzlaf, Jason Clermont, Greg Fieger and Scott Flory) and five erstwhile NHLers (Ryan Bayda, Byron Bitz, Ryan Keller, Jeremy Reich and James Wright).
Picton scored the lone goal in the shootout.
Dallen Schwab, competing on behalf of event sponsor Tap5050, was named the player of the game after scoring three goals for Team Lauther.
“You think about the hard work Brett has put in,” Clark marvelled. “It has basically been his brainchild.
“I think Brett just wanted to show off his skills more than anything — and why not do it in front of the great people of Saskatoon?”
Lauther, who spent three seasons with the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League’s Brookfield Elks while attending Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, had two goals on Saturday.
The Roughriders’ placekicker would have registered a hat trick, actually, but an attempt on a penalty shot sailed over the crossbar.
Hold on for a second. In football, an attempt that clears the crossbar constitutes a successful field goal, so one could contend that Lauther deserved a considerably better fate on the allegedly errant penalty shot.
“I tried to put it over the bar to get us three points and put us back in the lead, but that didn’t count for anything, so I had to go and get another one,” said Lauther, who soon followed with his second goal of the game.
“The goalies (Brandon Holtby of Team Lauther and Riley Christison of Team Bagg) were unreal. There were countless breakaways, penalty shots and two-on-ones and they were just shutting the door all night. They were the MVPs in my book.
“But the real MVPs were all the people who put in all this work behind the scenes to pull this off.”
Lauther, for one, had been working on logistics pertaining to the event for 10 months. Given his selfless nature, however, he was quick to laud the efforts of others.
“There were so many countless hours by people who don’t get a lot of recognition — the people upstairs (in the Roughriders’ business office), the Foundation, Craig Reynolds …,” Lauther said, referencing in the Roughriders’ President-CEO — who attended the game with his son, Noel, and daughter, Neeve.
“I can’t even start naming everyone because they put together a team for me. I don’t want to leave anyone out.
“It was just an incredible effort by them. Everyone put in an insane amount of hours for the last 10 months to pull off something like this. I couldn’t be more happy for everyone to have pulled off something like this in Year 1.”
And now, on to Year 2 …
“That’s the goal,” Lauther said with a smile prior to a post-game autograph session. “This is Year 1 and we got it off the ground. We couldn’t have done it without BASF and all the sponsors and all the hard work.
“Now we have the template down and hopefully we can get bigger and better every year. I’m not going to be playing football forever, so hopefully this is something I can come back to so I can see the fans and just have a good time with everyone.”
