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8 // JANUARY 2018 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM O F F T HE D R AW PHOTOS BY TC Lewis; USHL; Mary Helmick; Getty Images k When a fire tore through a stor- age facility at the Kansas City Ice Center in the early morning hours on Sept. 6, it did more than call the local fire department into action. It also brought the hockey world together to ensure that kids could stay in the game. While the arena sustained little damage, the garage was destroyed, along with trophies, pictures and other maintenance equipment inside. More importantly, with the local youth hockey associa- tion gearing up for its annual Try Hockey for Free Day on Nov. 4, the equipment that was intended for the event was also lost in the fire. Once the initial shock wore off, KCYHA President Tom Tilley and Mary Helmick, the association's program director, swung into action to replace the equipment. Helmick reached out to repre- sentatives from USA Hockey, who enlisted help from the NHL and the NHL Players Association. The effort paid off, as 100 sets of hockey gear, including skates, sticks, jerseys and helmets were rushed to the rink. "All three entities deserve a huge thank-you," said Tilley, who played in the NHL from 1988 to 1995. "When you're a small market like this, you can't miss an opportunity to introduce kids to the game." The KCYHA Try Hockey for Free Day ended up being a success with more than 80 youngsters discover- ing the thrill of playing hockey. "Hockey is more than just kids playing in the NHL and any way we can help people who want to play our game we try to do whatever we can," said Rob Knesaurek, the vice president of the NHL's Industry Growth Fund Initiatives. A Team Effort Keeps Hockey Alive At K.C. Rink COMMUNITY KRAFT HOCKEYVILLE 3 Fifty-seven years after his final game with the Montreal Canadiens and 17 years after his passing, the great Maurice Richard continues to climb up the NHL's scoring list. Thanks to the dogged work of a group of NHL number crunchers, the man they called "The Rocket" has another assist added to his career totals. For the past six years, an NHL statistics team has scoured scoresheets and summaries of games between 1917 and 1987 and fixed more than 6,000 bits of information that were previously overlooked or miscounted. Among the games they looked at was a 6-5 Canadiens loss to the Boston Bruins on Nov. 4, 1945 in which a Richard helper was originally credited to his Montreal teammate Elmer Lach. The restored assist gives Richard 422 in an 18-year career that ended in 1960, and his points total climbs to 966. The new totals can be found on NHL.com. These corrections are part of a massive undertaking to update and modernize the league database. NHL head statistician Benny Ercolani said Richard's assist is just the beginning of this massive effort to set the record straight. "This is only the tip of the iceberg," he said. "There's a lot of other stuff coming. "Now that we've got the data, we can do a lot with it." 'ROCKET' CONTINUES TO SOAR UP SCORING CHARTS NHL Maurice Richard T H E L I N C O L N S TA R S w e n t above and beyond the call of duty as the USHL organization raised more than $20,000 for local veterans with the post- game jersey auction on Military Appreciation Night. Funds from the auction on Nov. 22 will help returning active duty service members and veter- ans in the greater Lincoln area and Nebraska with their transition to civilian life. As part of the celebration, the Stars welcomed nearly 3,000 fans into the Ice Box for Military Appreciation Night, allowing veterans free entry with a military ID and their families receiving dis- counted admission. During the proceedings, the Stars honored the Nebraska Air National Guard's 2-104th General Support Aviation Battalion as well as all veterans in attendance. "Every little bit helps those who serve our country get back to civilian life, and the Stars wanted to do their part to draw attention and assist in whatever way we can," said Star's exec- utive John Notter. USHL STARS' GENEROSITY SHINES TO SUPPORT MILITARY