Alex Halat has lost feeling in his toes. His ribs are cracked. His lower back is blown out. And with little sleep in the past nine days, he’s exhausted, having lost about 25 pounds since he hit the ice to break the world record for the longest hockey game.
As if the physical torment weren’t enough, two of Halat’s teammates have left the game because of family emergencies. According to Guinness World Record rules, Team Hope can’t take on new players for the 248-hour charity game against Team Cure in Chestermere.
The loss in bench strength has only added to the strain on the remaining players — their on-ice shifts will last much longer now — but they are also worried about their colleagues, one who lost his mother-in-law, another whose sister is fighting cancer.
“This is something we knew that we would get into; this is something we’re willing to do to our bodies in order for the kids to get out of the hospital and get back to their families,” Halat said.
Hockey Marathon for Kids is raising cash for the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, with some donations also heading to other causes, including southern Alberta flood relief.
They set out to raise $2 million, but with only a couple of days to go, they have collected $905,000, a shortfall organizers say is at least partly linked to donors feeling tapped out after digging deep for flood donations.
For the past nine gruelling days, Team Hope and Team Cure have had plenty of inspiration to draw upon, to keep them motivated to see this agonizing project through to the finish.
A young boy who survived after facing overwhelming odds of dying from a brain tumour jumped in on the action Sunday. A player picked him up and, holding on tight, headed to centre ice for the faceoff. The duo won the draw, stickhandled the puck to the net — and scored.
The boy could barely stand the excitement.
“It brought everyone on the ice to tears,” Halat said. “To know that he was a patient at the hospital and they were able to help this child with a 20 per cent chance of survival — we’re hoping to see more stories like that after this game, what we can do financially to give back to them.”
Halat said morale on the ice has also been buoyed by strong support in the stands. Hundreds of children have been cheering on both teams — students from a local school recently showed up at the rink with signs emblazoned with thank-you messages.
They’ve needed the boost. Liam Huculak, a forward on Team Hope, left Saturday to be with his sister, who is fighting for her life at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. Teammates hung his jersey up on the bench and wore pink stickers with his number, 54, on their helmets.
“His fiancé was one of our volunteers and got the phone call that his sister was taken into emergency surgery,” said Lesley Plumley, who has been co-ordinating the charity event.
“And unfortunately (her condition has been) deteriorating. We asked him if he wanted to continue playing or if he’d like to be with his sister and, of course, the decision was to be with his sister. Her name was on the back of his jersey; that’s who he was playing for.”
Another tragedy struck Sunday. John Haggis, also of Team Hope, was sitting on the bench when his wife called to tell him his mother-in-law had died unexpectedly from an aneurysm. He left the game to be with his family.
“It’s almost like you get hit in the face; you realize why you’re out on the ice, and it hits close to home for the guys,” Plumley said. “It’s now not just the children from the hospital that the guys are worried about — it’s also their linemates.”
The losses mean Team Hope is down to 18 players against Team Cure, which has a full complement of 20 athletes.
But the end is now in sight, with the final buzzer set to ring Wednesday.
“I’m looking forward to being with my family,” Halat said.
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