Hockeyville Night fills the Forum

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You can easily get a sense of the crowd that packed the Forum for Hockeyville Night on Friday. Cheering, waving those orange whatzits and generally having a good time, they vied for the draws — a set of hockey cards won by someonone who identified herself only as "Beckie" and a quilt by Suzie Cameron that went to the Anderson family. They also put in dozens of stories in hopes of winning two tickets to the Vancouver Canucks' March 18 game against the San Jose Sharks. The winner of the tickets will be known on Jan. 30. David F. Rooney photo
You can easily get a sense of the crowd that packed the Forum for Hockeyville Night on Friday. Cheering, waving those orange whatzits and generally having a good time, they vied for the draws — a set of hockey cards won by someone who identified herself only as "Beckie" and a quilt by Suzie Cameron that went to the Anderson family. They also put in dozens of stories in hopes of winning two tickets to the Vancouver Canucks' March 18 game against the San Jose Sharks. The winner of the tickets will be known on Jan. 30. David F. Rooney photo

By David F. Rooney

A crowd the size of which  fans said they hadn’t  seen since the Grizzlies went to the KIJHL playoffs two years ago turned out for Friday’s Hockeyville Night at the Forum.

In total 544 people turned out — about 400 more than have usually been showing up for hockey games this season. And if that wasn’t a good omen for the Revelstoke Hockeyville Committee, the Grizzlies went on to defeat the Chase Chiefs 5-4 in a hard-played squeaker of a game. Riley Sprague scored the winning goal on a power play with less than three minutes left in the game.

“This was a great game, a great game,” said Mayor Dave Raven, who was one of the hundreds of fans who came out for the heavily-advertised  — some might say heavily hyped — evening.

Revelstoke Hockeyville Committee Chairman Gary McLaughlin said Revelstoke is currently in seventh place in Canada and with less than three days to go before the cut-off for story submissions, people need to file them while they can. It will only take a few minutes and your story could mean the difference between Revelstoke being in the running to win $100,000 to renovate the Forum or being just another also-ran.

You can file your story online by going to http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hockeyville/communities/bc/en/, clicking on Submit Your Story, then when the screen refreshes clicking on BC Communities, then when it refreshes again, scrolling down to Revelstoke Forum and clicking on that. A form should appear that will allow you to file a story. Your story can be on any relevant subject as long as it is about the Forum and the way it is used, skating, hockey or skating and hockey culture. It cannot be longer than 500 words and must be accompanied by a photo. If you do not have a photo e-mail me at The Current at editor@revelstokecurrent.com and we’ll send you a photo you can use.

Thanks for your support.

Here’s one more photo from the evening and a video that culminates in the draw for Suzie Cameron’s lovely quilt — it was won by the Anderson family — and the complete set of McDonald’s hockey cards — it was won by someone who signed herself only as “Beckie.”

Catherine Bell of the Revelstoke Hockeyville Committee (right) talks with a supporter at the Committee's table on the concourse at the Forum. The Committee is very pleased with the level of support the big has achieved and hopes people will make one last push to file their stories before its all over — for this stage of the national competition — at midnight on Monday. David F. Rooney photo
Catherine Bell of the Revelstoke Hockeyville Committee (right) talks with a supporter at the Committee's table on the concourse at the Forum. The Committee is very pleased with the level of support the big has achieved and hopes people will make one last push to file their stories before its all over — for this stage of the national competition — at midnight on Monday. David F. Rooney photo

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