The singer in a local Tragically Hip tribute band experienced a Canadian hockey fan's dream trip last weekend.
Matt Mattson, who sings Gord Downie's lyrics in The Hip Show, skated with fellow beer-league hockey players in an outdoor game that was part of the NHL's Bridgestone Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.
As contest winners, Mattson was there with three of his teammates from the Sociable Weavers squad that plays in the Adult Safe Hockey League (ASHL) out of Langley Twin Rinks.
(PICTURED: Matt Mattson carries the ASHL trophy around the ice at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.)
On Saturday (Jan. 2), they played on a West squad that won a West-versus-East game 3-0 for the right to hoist the ASHL Molson Canadian Cup. The other local contest-winners were Richard Shirley, Dustin Schatz and Mike Buness.
The four hockey players spent four days in the Boston area.
"It was an amazing experience," said Mattson, a White Rock-raised musician who began playing organized hockey this year.
"We had amazing seats, club seats, for the Winter Classic that Molson got for us. The game itself, the one we played, was a highlight of the trip, for sure."
In order to play their game starting at 8 a.m. Saturday, Mattson and the others had to be up and on a bus by 5:45 a.m. for the trip to the stadium.
"The West team wanted to win a little bit more than the East guys, let's just put it that way," Mattson said with a laugh.
The Hip Show has played the Dublin Crossing bar in Cloverdale in recent years, and was featured at the City of Surrey's Canada Day party last July.
tom.zillich@thenownewspaper.com
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