Maple Leafs ambush men’s league hockey game at York University

If you haven't seen the Bud Light Super Bowl commercial, where they give the pro treatment to beer leaguers in Port Credit, Ontario, you should check it out. It's one of those things that will make any Canadian rec hockey player say "imagine that, playing in front of the cameras, and a packed house of screaming fans." But for my Delta Force teammates and I, this seemed all too familiar.

Team Delta Force took on the Colts last Thursday at Toronto's York University as part of the Coke Zero Ambush, a cross promotion with Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment and Canlan Ice Sports where the gang from MLSE crash a random men's league hockey game in the GTA. We're not quite sure why our team was selected. I like to think it's because we've got Chuck Norris on our jerseys, but whatever the logic, Delta Force won the men's league hockey lottery when we showed up to play last week.

We entered the dressing room to find customized Maple Leaf jerseys, with both our names and numbers on the back, hanging at our stalls (that's right, stalls). A table sat in the middle of the room with beverages and hockey tape at our disposal, which was great because I never have tape (just ask my teammates). Legendary Maple Leafs play-by-play man Joe Bowen was in attendance, watching the game with a microphone in his hand. Carlton the Bear was putting on a show during intermission. The Maple Leafs girls kept the crowd entertained (because C-division men's league hockey is far from entertaining). But the coolest part of the event had to be the guest coaches.

Now, for all intents and purposes, this event was supposed to be a surprise. But we had gotten wind of the plans just over a week in advance. Our team captain Steve Switzer had been contacted to confirm roster names and jersey numbers. He was told that our team had been chosen to take place in an "event" with Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment at our league game on February 2. After a quick phone call to MLSE, the event was confirmed, but all we were told was to "bring our family and friends." Stevie fired off a quick heads-up to the team, kick-starting an email thread that grew longer than a Kardashian wedding. And in less than two hours, Mark "Spitzey" Spitzen sent out a link that had our jaws to the floor.

Luke Schenn, Clarke MacArthur, Joffrey Lupul and Carl Gunnarsson were split in twos to coach The Alts and the Norlake Boys Club at the Etobicoke ambush just before Christmas. A month later it was Phil Kessel, Matthew Lombardi, Jonas Gustavsson and Tyler Bozak coaching them up in Oakville. We didn't know who to expect at York, until this:

"Checking out #CokeZeroAmbush tonight with Kuli, Grabo & TC. i hear 1000 fans fit in the stands at York, wonder if Leafs Nation can fill them," tweets Colby Armstrong (@armdog) the day of the event. (For the non-Leafs fans out there, that would be Nikolai Kulemin, Mikhail Grabovski and Tim Connolly.)

Army's tweet (yup, Colby and I are that close) confirmed this was to be an awesome night, but something in me refused to believe it until I saw it. And there they were, shaking hands and cracking jokes in the dressing room, like they're one of the boys. I was so excited that I almost turned off my camera before their pre-game speech. Almost!

And if that didn't get the boys fired up, this surely did:

We were minutes away from game time, frantically preparing for the player introductions (a few names on our squad are not the easiest to pronounce). Andy Frost, who called the entire game as if we were playing at the ACC, was set to introduce each and every skater as we took to the ice. I'll never tire of hearing Andy call out my name.

At this point I had almost forgotten there was a game to play. I looked over at the bench to see Maple Leafs legend Darryl Sittler with one of my favourite Leafs of all time, Darcy Tucker, leaning against the glass beside Army and TC. The Maple Leaf carpet was rolled out to centre ice, where Darryl and Darcy dropped the puck for the ceremonial faceoff.

When the game got started I nearly missed my first shift, fumbling with the camera while dropping my gloves on the bench. The early game jitters got us off to a slow start as we went in to the second period down by one. My mother, who hadn't seen me play in nearly 14 years, didn't seem to care. All of the Delta Force mothers and fathers, and wives, daughters, sons, were having a great time.

We didn't fair much better in the second period, falling down by two heading into the third. Yours truly spent nearly half of the period in the box for a slash - not my smartest play, but i did get to hear Andy call my name one more time. We made a good game of it, scoring with a few minutes left and nearly tying it up late. Colby drew up a play for an offensive faceoff with 15 seconds left, but we couldn't win a draw.

Delta Force wound up losing 2-1, forcing Colby and Tim to pony up on their bet with Grabo and Kuli. Yet despite the tough loss, this event was a win for everyone involved. On behalf of team Delta Force, I'd like to thank MLSE, Canlan Ice Sports and Coca-Cola for an incredible night. Those lucky enough to take part in the next Coke Zero Ambush are in for the night of their lives.