Brooks Alberta Photographer - The Night The Habs Came to Town

They may be a little older....OK, maybe a LOT older, and perhaps a little bit slower than the glory days of the old NHL, but the Montreal Canadiens Alumni team still have game. 
The team came to Brooks recently to take on the Crossroads Challengers - a rag-tag crew who love hockey and raising money for a worthy cause. I think there may have been just a couple Habs fans in the mix, too. Regardless, it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance - how often have you skated let alone played hockey with a bunch of guys who laced up in the big league? 
The game wasn't all business, there were a few silly moments (a certain pie in the face incident comes to mind), and you couldn't wipe the smiles off the faces of either team. We had some celebrities of our own on the green team, Duane Sutter played on the same line as his daughter (and Rolling Hills resident) Darby Lester, plus Darby's daughter Hayden was part of the Junior Challengers that took on the Alumni team between the first and second period. Where else can you find three generations on the ice, taking on former NHLers?

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Now the real winners here were the wonderful people over at the Crossroads Clinic in Brooks. They organized the event, and funds raised are crucial for their everyday work. It's great to see such a positive response to a fundraiser like this. Speaking of raising funds, I've created a gallery of images from the game, where you can find digital images or even order heirloom prints and other products. Proceeds from images sold will be donated to Crossroads Clinic. The gallery has watermarked images for viewing purposes, if you'd like a high-res version, shoot me an email!
So what was the final score? Well, it wasn't close... we'll just say that. But the points really didn't matter much, it was for love of the game and playing for the cause. 
​Huge shout-out to all the players who were likely sore the next day - you fine folks did great out there!

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