North Saanich will host a National Hockey League game after Panorama Recreation Centre was named the 2015 grand-prize winner of Kraft Hockeyville on Saturday to the delight of a wildly cheering crowd.
Panorama beat out Chatham-Kent, Ont., with a vote of 1.1 million to about 670,000, to win the annual contest celebrating hockey in Canadian communities.
The arena will get to host a pre-season game between the Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks this fall.
Panorama was packed with more than 500 people as the announcement was broadcast live during Hockey Night in Canada.
When North Saanich was called, the crowd erupted — people of all ages screaming, cheering, whistling and banging thunder sticks.
Jason Fletcher, the volunteer and Peninsula Minor Hockey coach who wrote the nomination, had a lot to celebrate on Saturday, his 44th birthday. It was his vision to win the Hockeyville title, but he said it was the community’s effort that made it a reality.
“I’m just so thrilled and honoured that the community got behind this,” Fletcher said.
“We are so happy and thrilled and we will represent Canada as Hockeyville with great honour and pride.
“I just wanted to do something for the arena I grew up playing in and around and that my kids were at … and here we are.”
Lesley Davies, an ardent fan of the Victoria Royals, estimates she cast more than 14,000 votes over the final two-day voting period.
Davies said she was working a handheld device and computer non-stop from the opening to the close of the final voting between North Saanich and Chatham.
She doesn’t believe she slept much.
Fletcher, who said he logged about the same number, can’t recall sleeping much either.
Seven-year-old Nisa Broome was wielding two big thunder sticks Saturday. She was happy that North Saanich won — and even happier that the visiting team will be the Sharks.
Aoy Broome said one of the teachers at Nisa’s school, Deep Cove Elementary, is the sister of Sharks’ player Matt Irwin, who hails from Brentwood Bay and played minor hockey on the Peninsula.
As the contest’s finalists, Panorama (specifically Arena B) and Chatham Memorial Arena were both awarded $100,000 for arena upgrades.
What those improvements will be — locker upgrades and meeting and storage space are needed — has yet to be decided.
Fletcher said he wants to see “everybody reap the best benefit out of this gift we’ve been given by Kraft.”
“Tuesday, the NHL is going to be here checking out our building — they don’t waste any time,” Fletcher said.
Playing hockey in the parking lot after the announcement were 10-year-olds Corrin Chapeski and Aidan Chaney, who play with the Peninsula Eagles.
“I think everybody in town probably voted 500 times,” Corrin said.
He and Aidan figure Peninsula hockey players should be given first dibs on watching the Canucks-Sharks game, “and then all the lucky people.”
