THUNDER BAY -- By mid-July, the Staal brothers’ NHL season will be have been over for weeks.
But they’ll still have one more game to play.
Only this time they’ll exchange their skates for sneakers to take part in the Pandora Intercity Summer Classic, a road hockey game teeming with NHL celebrities and hall of famers, local media personalities and youngsters chosen to play in the game through a contest put on by the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation.
To make the event a little more authentic, the game will be refereed by former NHL official Ray Scapinello, still the longest-serving on-ice official in NHL history, and feature the play-by-play of TSN’s That’s Hockey host Gino Reda and Thunder Bay’s own Glenn Schiiler.
The July 11 game will help kick off the third annual Staal Foundation Open, the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada’s Thunder Bay stop.
The plan is to build an outdoor rink in the parking lot at Whitewater Golf Club, said tournament director Scott Smith on Friday, the event a way to inject even more fun into the Staal Foundation Open to draw more spectators to the course.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun. All the players are excited about it and I think it’ll be great for the kids. And I think it will get a lot more people out to the event. We’re expecting a big crowd on Monday, with everything going on.”
The game will benefit the hospital foundation, Camp Quality Northwestern Ontario and the Northwestern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer.
NHLers Eric, Marc, Jordan and Jared Staal will all take part in the contest, two on each side.
“As kids we always found ourselves with a stick in our hand no matter if it was winter or summer or whether we were playing hockey on the ice, the road or even in the backyard,” said New York Rangers forward Eric Staal, in a statement.
“We always knew that hockey was our sport and this is where our first memories of the game were made. We are so excited to bring the first ever Summer Classic to our hometown of Thunder Bay and can’t wait for face off for such a great cause.”
The game is scheduled for 11 a.m., prior to the pro-am celebrity golf tournament to be held later that day.
