Player put ‘fair play’ above goal

In the midst of a highly competitive, late-season contest, a preteen hockey player chose doing what was right over what was easy.

The easy would have been to take credit, no questions asked, for a goal that would put his Melfort Mustangs peewee AA squad up on the Saskatoon Thunder. What was right: telling his coach and the referee that he clearly saw the puck did not cross the goal-line.

“This young man exhibited a level of class and respect for the game that we should all aspire to,” said Melfort Minor Hockey Association president Brad Hicks in an open letter he penned following the game.

During the peewee AA contest on Feb. 4, a scrum ensued around the Thunder net.

The puck wound up beneath the Saskatoon goaltender and the whistle blew.

After a conversation between the officials, trying to determine who got the best look at the play around the net, a goal was awarded to the Mustangs.

As Saskatoon coach Randy Smith was getting an explanation from the referee and action was close to resuming, Sage Roberts — the member of the Mustangs who was about to receive credit for the goal — definitively told his coach, Randy Kerr, that the puck hadn’t crossed the line.

Smith, said Hicks, “was simply amazed by this act of sportsmanship in such a competitive environment.”

The rest of the Mustangs rallied around Roberts. “A true team,” said Hicks.

“All too often,” Hicks said, there are “cases where tempers flare and people behave in unacceptable ways.

“Here is an instance where a young man put fair play and integrity above a single goal.

“We can all learn from this player’s actions, along with those of his coaches and teammates supporting him.”