When National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman made the official announcement live during Sportsnet’s Hockey Night in Canada’s pre-game show, every eye and ear in the O’Leary Community Sports Centre was trained on a video screen awaiting his big reveal. Cheers erupted as soon as Bettman uttered the ‘O’ of O’Leary.
As eastern finalist in a national competition that started with nearly 3,000 entries, O’Leary had already won $100,000 for arena upgrades. Beating out Ituna, Sask., for the grand prize means O’Leary gets to host a National Hockey League exhibition game between the Ottawa Senators and New Jersey Devils on Sept. 25.
The O’Leary Hockeyville committee is hoping the game will be in O’Leary, but committee member Jo-Anne Wallace said the location will likely be determined this week during meetings with contest co-ordinators.
But for the moment the committee is content to relish in the success of its Hockeyville campaign with the thousands of voters who helped make it all happen.
“We did it!” Wallace exclaimed. “Our community did it. The Island did it. We did it.”
Kraft Hockeyville would not reveal the voting results other than confirm O’Leary received the majority of the 2.4 million votes cast in the second round of voting. There were 3.9 million votes cast in the first round, when 10 communities were still in the running.
Kraft confirmed that both O’Leary and Ituna saw their voting totals increase over Round one.
Hockeyville: O’Leary committee, community in it to win it
“I was just wanting to win it for the kids and for this community,” said Della Sweet after accepting the Hockeyville Cup on behalf of her committee and all of O’Leary’s supporters.
“We couldn’t have worked any harder; our community couldn’t have been any more supportive,” Sweet said as she and her committee members accepted congratulations and hugs for a job well done.
Local hockey teams were paraded into the sports centre shortly after 3 p.m. for a party that kept rolling right past Bettman’s 8 p.m. announcement. More than 2,000 people, ranging in age from newborn to 96, took in the games, refreshments and entertainment. Special O’Leary, P.E.I. T-shirts, featuring a potato that looks very much like a robot but with the words, “I’m not a robot” were being sold.
By the time Bettman appeared on the big screen the crowd was electrified.
Wallace, hoarse from cheering, wondered if winning the Stanley Cup could be any more exciting.
“You’ve got a great team working on it around you, much like the Stanley Cup, and you come out victorious over almost 3,000 entries. It is not a small feat; it’s been a journey. It’s been a playoff run and now we’ve got the cup. We’ve got the Hockeyville Cup.”
Committee member Tammy Rix called the journey amazing.
“Although exhausting, we’re really having a great time doing this and the community has been great and everyone is wonderful, and I’m so glad we could contribute this way to the community and make memories for these kids.”
She’s eager to get on with planning for the hockey game.
Wallace said Sportsnet will be back in July to do some filming in advance of the hockey game and the committee will try to incorporate that visit into the Potato Blossom Festival or some other community activity.
