Monday, March 10, 1997

Road trip to hell can't stop players

  WHITEHORSE -- The Ottawa Senators have never had a road trip like the Dawson City Nuggets just experienced.
  Crashes, players pinned under their vehicles, a mountain so steep that some snowmobiles had to be disassembled and pulled up, and a broken heater are some of the highlights from their eight-day Dawson-to-Whitehorse trek.
  Dawson Oldtimer Pat Hogan took all the wipe-outs and crashes in stride.
  "When you're going over long distance and different terrains, that's what is going to happen. You just make sure you don't get hurt and you can fix what you break," he said.
  Kevin Anderson witnessed one fellow player hit a tree stump at 40 km/h and then end up under the machine with his legs dangling from the handle bars. The player got up and kept on.
  And there was the time that Sun columnist Earl McRae took the wrong turn.
  "It's a good thing (Dawson player) Bruce Duffee has a faster machine than Earl. He chased him halfway to Carmacks. He bashed into Earl's snowmobile to get him to turn around," Anderson said.
  The team played a game of shinny yesterday against a Whitehorse team in front of about 200 locals, including MP Audrey McLaughlin.
  "(Ottawa) better be expecting big trouble," the former NDP leader warned.
  Lynne Frair came out to watch the Dawson team because her grandfather, Charlie Watt, was on the 1905 Dawson team that battled against the Ottawa Silver Seven.
  Watt died before Frair was born, so she never got to hear war stories about the Ottawa odyssey.
  "I know he got his front teeth knocked out during the game in Ottawa. He was very proud of them. He had a nice smile until the Senators took them out," Frair said.