The Peace Region will play host to some international hockey with the Para Cup happening in Dawson Creek.
Greg Westlake is a long time member of the Canadian National Para Hockey team, he says this event will be a rare opportunity for them to play on home soil.
“These will be the only five games we play in Canada this year. We’re a very prideful hockey nation and we can’t wait to get there. We’re at our camp right now and we’re working hard in getting all of our systems in place and we need to test it. We need to go get into competition and play some other good teams and find out where we’re at.”
Westlake has played for team Canada at five Paralympics and is currently trying to make the team for the next games after a brief retirement.
He says while the sport may look different at first, it is a very fast paced game.
“It’s a full contact sport, the guys can shoot the puck extremely hard. Everybody comes into their first experience watching Para Hockey and at first it looks a little visually different, but they start seeing the hits and start seeing the plays and the systems and within 10 minutes of watching a game, everybody just feels like they’re watching a hockey game. It’s our goal to go out there and lay it on the line and give the fans a good experience.”
This event will be the last big international event for Para Hockey, ahead of the next Winter Paralympics.
You can listen to the full interview below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
