Game On, At Home:

This was in the Morning Star Newspaper:

NATALIE APPLETON/MORNING STAR

Game on, at home

VERNON VIPERS player Sahir Gill (left) tries to get the puck past seven-year-old goalie Troy Cruzzetto and his brother, Kyle, 11. Friend Josh Pringle (right) waits in front of net for a pass while other Vipers watch on the sidelines. About 12 members of the team came to the Cruzzetto’s house for an hour of ice time after the family won the Home Depot Backyard Rink contest.
Eleven-year-old Kyle Cuzzetto could hardly believe his ears when his dad, Mike, told him Vernon Viper players were coming over to play hockey.
“I was like, really? Are they really coming?” said Cuzzetto, standing on his family’s backyard rink last Sunday as defenceman Kyle Bigos and forward Sahir Gill pass the puck in front of his younger brother, Troy.
“I’m a big fan of the Vipers and skating with them is a once in a lifetime chance,” said Kyle.
The Cuzzettos won the Home Depot Backyard Rink contest, which brought nearly a dozen of the BCHL players to their house for an hour of ice time.
The net is facing the sun and the Cuzzetto boys take turns being the goalie. The oldest child, 14-year-old Megan, likes to watch more than play, but she picks up a stick and takes her share of shots too.
“It’s really cool because usually you don’t get to do this,” said Megan, who, like her brothers, is a huge Vipers fan and wants to be a sportscaster when she’s older.
As much as the Cuzzetto kids and their friends are having the game of their lives, the Vipers are enjoying the event too.
“It’s good to come out and have fun with the fans,” said Kevin Kraus, who didn’t have a backyard rink growing up in California.
Vipers captain Chris Crowell, who did have one at his family’s house in Williams Lake, albeit not quite as nice as the Cuzzetto’s, agreed that the contest is a fun way to spend time with the kids who look up to them.
“It’s cool to get to come to something like this,” said Crowell.
Wearing his signed, pale blue Vipers jersey, seven-year-old Troy beams at him, even when a puck is about to slip past his pads and into the net. He was “psyched” when his dad told him they’d won the contest, that he’d get to play with his favourite players at home for a whole hour.
“It was really fun,” said Troy, whose dad built the rink for them for the first time last year.
As Mike, his wife, Lori, and a handful of neighbours watch from the sidelines — their porch steps — the sun melts the edges of the ice and shines on the smiles of everyone inside the wooden frame.