For Everett Youth Hockey’s Glacier Bears; Friday November 28 2008, the day after Thanksgiving, was a historic night. Nik’s youth hockey team was given the opportunity to skate on The Everett Silvertips home ice right next door to the Everett community rink against a team from Seattle. Same size ice, just about 8100 more seats and it is where all these kids aspire to play one day wearing the green and white of this great WHL team.

It has been just over two weeks since the team found out this game was going to take place and the excitement has been building, comparable to Christmas. This also gave old Pop time to put together a group outing for others to not only enjoy the Tips taking on the Portland Winterhawks but also to be treated to this mini game between The Glacier Bears and the best Seattle Jr. Hockey had to offer. The group numbered nearly 50 plus all the regular season ticket holders in our section so there was quite a group. When you have a group that large you get a scoreboard welcome so I had the Nikolai Gusinsky fan club put up on the board. Nik didn’t get to see it cause he was under the stands in the locker room getting dressed for the game but when he saw the picture Uncle Eric took………the smile was ear to ear.

Nik was feeling good about his game not only cause he was going to be on the Silvertips ice but also cause he was dressed in slacks, collared shirt and a tie. I told him hockey players wear a tie when going to a game, they have respect for the sport and are to look like upstanding citizens when coming and going to a game. This seems to be lost in sports other than hockey anymore but Nik was walking in the clouds as he walked around the arena prior to the game and strangers would approach him and say he looked nice. That is when he said he is a hockey player and he is playing between periods. More than a handful of people thought that was awesome and made comments that he looked like a hockey player going to his game. He was very proud as is his old Dad.

We took the gear down to the locker room about 90 minutes before the face off of the Tips game and just hung out under the stands. The Silvertips were playing a game of hacky sack but with a ball and invited Nik and one of the other boys, Easton to play. The Tip players were nice to the kids and they were in heaven to say the least.When the game hit the 10 minute mark of the first period, Nik and I took off to meet the team to get all his gear on. He got dressed in record time, excitement can do that to a fella.

While getting dressed Nik was informed he would take the opening face off as the starting center. Holy cow, I didn’t think he could get more excited but I was way wrong on that one. Starting center for the Glacier Bears game on the Silvertips ice in front of the whole world!!!!!!

So the time finally came to take the ice and for the fun to start. The kids had just 5 to 6 minutes of ice time for the game before they would have to come off to give enough time for the Zamboni to resurface the ice. It was a one sided affair with the Glacier Bears in complete control. After a shot from the high slot, Nik was able to poke the rebound into the net for a goal. Celebration was instant! The game continued on and after the mini game the Glacier bears prevailed 3 goals to zero for Seattle.

Cool part about the score is it was the exact same score in the Silvertips game, Tips shut out the hapless Portland Winterhawks 3 to 0 for their 13th straight victory and 40th win in the last 52 games against the sagging Portland team. We love it when Portland comes to town, we have a great time cause our boys score goals early and often and they just can’t light the lamp. In four games this year Portland has scored 3 goals against Tip net minders. GO TIPS! GO GLACIER BEARS!

Once the final horn sounded to the mini game, it was a mad rush back into the locker room to get his dress clothes back on and up to our seats. As we arrived in the greatest section the arena, Section 209 gave Nik a big applause with some high fives for his efforts. He represented The Glacier Bears, Everett Youth Hockey and section 209 extremely well as did all the kids. He hung with us for awhile and then took off to sit with his teammates.

Good times to never be forgotten. To see images of this game, click on the link on the left of the home page that reads Glacier Bears on the big sheet.