This was the hottest ticket in town last night! If you weren't one of the five thousand people who were in attendance last night to witness this charity event, you missed one heck of a game! Kevin Bieksa of the Vancouver Canucks threw a very successful event for three charities close to his heart. The Canucks Place Children's Hospice, Canucks Autism Network and the Canucks Family Education Centre received $200,000 dollars from last night. Bieksa's goal was to raise $100,000, which he did but then singer, Michael Buble stepped in and matched the $100,000. He was supposed to have played on Bieksa's Buddies team and they even had #88 jersey ready with his name but found he got cold feet when it came time to lace the skates up! It was a very generous donation though.
Here's Bieksa and his dad mic'd up for the game. Courtesy of cbc.ca
So, my friend, Leslie-Anne and I got there, paid $10 for parking and found parking on the 3rd level of the parkade across the street from the Doug Mitchell Arena at UBC. We walked into the building and took a look around. I bought some 50/50 tickets from a volunteer. Leslie-Anne saw him before I did. She told me to look around "He's here! He's here!" is what she said! lol. So, I looked around to see who she was talking about. That's when I saw him. Sitting in his blue shirt and shorts giving Team 1040 radio station an interview.
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| Kevin Bieksa giving an interview with Team 1040 at Bieksa's Buddies |
After he was done, he ran down the steps to the bottom of the arena and got ready for the game. We could see them walking around back there with a soccer ball bouncing around in the air. I'm guessing pre-game warm-up!
We decided to look around some more. LA wanted to get some beer so we walked around to the concession areas. The prices were much cheaper than the regular BC Place and Rogers Arena prices. So she got herself a beer and we ended up wandering around for a bit. It was both of our first times in this particular arena. Once we were oriented, I decided to have a seat and wait for the players to show up on the ice. LA went back to the concessions to grab a burger.
We were each handed a roster program for the night. This is what the Bieksa Buddies roster looked like. Minus Buble.
Then they came out and started their warm-ups.
Cory Schnieder was the lone goalie for Bieksa's Buddies so he had a very long leash. He looked kinda rusty out there for awhile but then seemed to settle down a bit more as it went on.
The Buddies are ready to roll here.
The first period started and both teams were able to keep it pretty even. Schniedz looked shaky on his goals especially when he got beat on the very first shot! After he let in the second goal, one of the reporters there heckled "Put in Luongo!". Schneidz was able to laugh it off knowing full well, that this was Vancouver and he expected that sort of thing here. Second period was horrible for the buddies. They got schooled as the UBC Thunderbirds scored 4 straight goals to make it 7-3 before heading into the second intermission. I have to say that I really didn't like the UBC goal scoring song. I think it might have been their fight song followed by Thunderstruck - AC/DC. The third period was much better with the Buddies scoring five unanswered goals followed by the Canucks goal scoring song, "Bang bang bang bang, vamanos, vamanos!" Even Marty Bieksa, who played forward with the Sedins, scored a great goal. He really was pretty good.
Their dad, Al Bieksa was the Referee for this event. I thought he did a great job as well. The only questionable penatly would have to be to Ilan Cumberbirch of the T-Birds who got two minutes "for looking so good". Actually it was for roughing but funny all the same.
The end result was an 8-7 win for Bieksa's Buddies over the UBC Thunderbirds. Although, it seemed the T-Birds really made them work for it. Even after the T-birds pulled their goalie for the extra attacker, the Buddies decided to pull Schniedz out of goal too just to make it more fun. With the defensive draw on their own end, the Buddies were able to get the puck out of their zone at the last dying seconds denying the T-birds any chance at tying up the game.
And just for fan entertainment, there was a 10 man shoot-out at the end. It ended in a 2-2 tie. No points on the line here. There were a couple standouts. Marty Bieksa went in for a shot and threw his glove at the goalie and tried to score but to no avail. It must run in the family. Not quite the slider that K.Bieksa threw at Clutterbuck of the Wild last season.
The other standout was sniper Aaron Volpatti. He had to go up against three goalies in one net. The T-birds tried everything to try to stop Volpatti from scoring to keep it tied. You can watch the entire shootout below.
All in all, it was a fun night. The hockey starved fans got their hockey fix and were entertained thoroughly. $200,000 was raised for the three charities that Bieksa is involved with and the players themselves got to play in a game in front of their fans which I'm sure they've missed as well. It was a total success and all because of Kevin Bieksa. I'm so proud of him and where his mind is at during this lockout. He's not one to sit back and just do nothing. And now, after today's response to the new NHLPA propsal, it's looking even more dismal of any sort of an NHL season to salvage. Maybe all we'll have are Bieksa's charity games to look forward too. He's not only a leader on the ice, but off the ice as well. I hope he's planning his next charity game....looks like we're gonna need it. Thank you Bieksa for arranging this much needed night for the fans, charities and the players! You are awesome!
Here's a bonus video I found on youtube of Kevin Bieksa and his dad talking about taking the College route playing hockey.
“I’m in the position where we can go on the ice and raise money for charity and for me, it seems like a no-brainer to impact a lot of families in B.C … I don’t look too far ahead, but I know it’s something I’ll do at some point. Trevor took a year to evaluate things and relax and do some things he wasn’t able to do with the hockey season and training. He’s involved in a lot of charities and in business. I imagine I’ll be much the same.”
| — | Kevin Bieksa |
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