A Touching Gesture

Via The Calgary Sun (Written by Wes Gilbertson)

The boys never did discuss a budget.

They were buying the jersey.

Simple as that.

“I mean, we were hoping that nobody was going to bid us up, but we were going for it either way,” chuckled Calgary Flames forward prospect Andrew Mangiapane, one of the central figures in Saturday’s goosebumps-worthy gesture in Stockton, Calif.

“I wasn’t really listening to the numbers. I think, at one point, I bid twice in a row. I think I was at $350, and then I said, ‘$375!’ And then (Curtis) Lazar taps me and says, ‘Hey, you’re outbidding yourself right now!’ ”

Oh well, it’s for a great cause.

Saturday was Stick It To Cancer Night for the American Hockey League’s Stockton Heat, the primary affiliate for the Flames.

Their special-edition sweaters would be auctioned off after the final buzzer, and the farm-clubbers were adamant about purchasing Adam Ollas-Mattsson’s game-worn silks — No. 34, in case you were wondering — as a gift for the stay-at-home defenceman who lost his mother, Elisabeth, to the disease in 2012.

To read the full article, head to the Calgary Sun’s website.