Flair Airlines is now two-for-two in losing, then returning NHL hockey sticks given to Island children after reuniting a lost Seattle Kraken hockey stick to a Ucluelet boy.
Mason Midlane went to Las Vegas for a friend’s birthday on April 11 and he was able to entice one of his favourite players, Daniel Sprong, to give him a hockey stick using a sign.
“It said, ‘Sprong #91 we flew over 2000 km to see this game — rock, paper, scissors for your stick?’” Mason told CHEK News on May 1.
“At the end of warm-ups, it looked like he was going to go off the ice, and he went onto the bench and grabbed one of his sticks and started skating over to us, and we were both just in shock — we never thought that would happen.”
The stick was a Bauer AG5NT with Sprong’s name on it, and Mason held it close to him for the duration of the game and the following four days.
On the flight to Vancouver, he was told the stick couldn’t go through security so he paid $75 to check it with Flair Airlines, but then the stick did not arrive in Vancouver.
Then one month after the initial game, Carrie Midlane, Mason’s mom, tells CHEK News the stick was delivered by FedEx on Wednesday.
A similar situation happened to brothers in Nanaimo, who had received a Bo Horvat hockey stick at a Canucks game in Edmonton.
Marshall and Linden Erwin had received the stick at a game on Dec. 23, then when the boys were required to check the stick for their Flair Airlines flight, it was also lost.
In this instance, the Erwin brothers only had to wait six days to be reunited with the lost stick.
READ MORE: Lost Bo Horvat stick found, to be returned to Nanaimo brothers: ‘We are so grateful’
Mason Midlane says Daniel Sprong is one of his favourite players. (Carrie Midlane/submitted)
Laura Brougham
