A much smaller and younger Canucks hockey team had the chance to skate on the NHL ice of the Vancouver Canucks – and they made the trip all the way from Whitehorse to do it.

The tyke Canucks from the Whitehorse Hockey Minor Association played on the big Rogers Arena ice surface in Vancouver during the first intermission of their game against the San Jose Sharks Saturday evening.

The team won a contest earlier in the year that coach Derek Johnstone entered for the team in September 2017. In February, the longtime Whitehorse hockey player and coach suffered a severe neck and spine injury and is currently on the road to recovery in Vancouver.

Johnstone, who’s daughter is a member of the young Canucks team, vowed that he would make it there to the game and sure enough, he did.

“He was able to make it,” team assistant coach Daniel MacDonald said. “He came to the hotel Friday night at 4:00 and Derek stayed all weekend.”

MacDonald said the team was thrilled to see Johnstone and have him partake in the experience with them.

Sporting their Canucks Timbit hockey jerseys, the Whitehorse squad took the ice during the first intermission of the game in front of a packed arena. They split into two teams to play a friendly game against each other with the Canucks mascot Fin as the referee for the game.

The game ended with a 1-0 score for the white jersey team MacDonald said, and following the game the on-ice team interviewed some of the players asking about Whitehorse and what it was like to make the trip down to Vancouver – the first NHL game for many of the players.

“The kids were super excited, smiling and laughing,” he said.

Following the game, MacDonald said Fin the mascot came into the dressing room and handed out a signed card to each of the players – but their main focus was to find out if he was a real whale.

This chance of a lifetime experience for the team was through the Canucks Centre Mini Minor Program with BC Hockey affiliated teams from tyke to peewee age levels having the chance to enter and be randomly selected to play.

The prize includes bus transportation from the team’s home rink to the arena, but with Whitehorse being a bit of a drive, the first-class bus service was still arranged to take the team from the hotel to the arena – even though they were right across the street.

“It was a really good experience, all the kids got to go too which was really nice,” MacDonald said of the trip. “It was a good way to cap off the season.”

In an extra gift to the young players, MacDonald said Finning Canada in Whitehorse bought all of the players their very own Vancouver Canucks jerseys to sport back home in the Yukon.