Despite an early puck to the face, Theoren Fleury led the NHL Alumni to victory, scoring five goals and assisting seven others in Saturday night鈥檚 match-up against the Jasper Wolves鈥� all-star team.
The final score in the charity game for Greg Van Tighem鈥檚 End to End to End MS campaign was 19鈥�12.
Skating with Fleury on the alumni team were Claude Lemieux, Tiger Williams, Bryan Trottier, Bob Bourne, Kraig Nienhaus and Marty McSorley, as well as Jasperites Taylor Van Tighem, Jeff Smith, Jeff Melanson, Talon Sweeney, Ryan Verge and Wendy Hall.
The all-star who shined brightest for the Jasper Wolves was Colleen Olson who, with some fancy stick work, managed a hat trick. She first scored off an assist from Bob Covey in the second, then off a pass from Joe Hill in the third and, with four minutes left in the game, off a breakaway pass from Marc LeBlanc.
The game, along with a golf tournament, banquet, silent and live auction, was organized by Peter Hayashi in the span of 10 days.
According to Van Tighem, who before the weekend of events was about $28,000 away from his $93,000 fundraising goal, everything came together better than expected.
鈥淚t was almost overwhelming to see the support,鈥� he said, noting that the money hasn鈥檛 yet been tallied up, but it should put him within grasp of his goal. 鈥淟ike someone said, 鈥楯asper just keeps giving.鈥� It does.鈥�
Van Tighem began his journey to raise $93,000 for the MS Society of Canada in the spring when he biked the length of Highway 93, from Wickenburg, Ariz. to Jasper. Since then he has been busy fundraising in any way he can think of: holding summer and fall fairs, participating in the Hinton Bike Tour, and hosting a competition for fire departments in Alberta.
The competition has five departments competing to raise the most funds for MS before Oct. 4. The winning department will receive a barbecue for 50 people, prepared by Van Tighem, who will ride his bike to the winning community.
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
