Page:Hockey, Canada's Royal Winter Game.djvu/38

 players, or a ziz-zag, twisting, twirling, dodging run to score a deciding goal?

The pure air, the bright lights, the merry, laughing girls, the noisy enthusiastic boys, and age that's not too old to still enjoy the pleasure of a fascinating game, all combine, with the keen ice and the fast play, to make hockey the king of infatuating sports.

Essentially an exciting game, hockey thrills the player and fascinates the spectator. The swift race up and down the ice. the dodging, the quick passing and fast skating, make it an infatuating game. From the time that the whistle blows for the face-off until the exciting moment when the gong announces the end of the match, the players are rushing, struggling, and the spectators straining their eyes to catch every glimpse of the play.

Fast! it eclipses other games in this respect, as football outdoes croquet in point of roughness. Never a second to lose, never a moment to spare&mdash;an opportunity once lost is gone forever&mdash;and even one little slip, one miss, one fumble, is oftentimes the loss of a match.

So fascinating is the game to a man who rivets his attention on the play, that even the most thunderous applause, if he hears it at all, sounds like the far-off echo of a rippling brook, because he is engaged heart and soul in his work.