DOVER, N.H. - The Northeast Passage Wildcats, a team composed of disabled players who use custom-built sleds to push, pivot, and propel themselves around the ice, and they play a highly competitive schedule. Next month, they will compete for the national sled hockey title in Dallas.
Mike Downing, Craig Brady, and another player wounded in Afghanistan form a key part of the Wildcats, whose other members cope with disabilities such as spinal cord injuries and cerebral palsy. To the veterans, the sport is an outlet for their competitiveness and a balm for their spirit....
Sled hockey and other sports for the disabled have become popular with wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom might have died on the battlefields of Vietnam and earlier wars but now are surviving because of combat-driven medical advances.
For many of these veterans, the discipline they needed in military life has carried over to competition that requires them to think, react, and move in dramatically new ways.
For the sled hockey players, that means strapping their legs, or parts of their legs, onto a sled that sits atop two skate blades. Propulsion comes from the shoulders, back, and arms, which use two, shortened hockey sticks as poles to start, stop, and turn.
The sticks, which are held in each hand, have small metal cleats to gain traction. They also function as regular hockey sticks to pass, control, and shoot the puck, sometimes as fast as 80 miles per hour.
The Wildcats, who play in the Northeast Sled Hockey League, compete at the top level of the game. They own a 14-3 record this year, have two Paralympic gold medalists, and boast of teammate Kristy Vaughn, a University of New Hampshire freshman who, in the view of coach Tom Carr, might be the best woman player in the world.
Downing, who played goalie at Walpole High School in Massachusetts, relishes the hard-nose aspects of the game - hard collisions, awkward spills, and slapshots that bounce off his goalie mask.
“I love the game,’’ said Downing, a father of four who served with the Massachusetts Army National Guard.
Downing lost his legs in September 2008, one at the knee and one above the knee, when a remote-controlled, 300-pound bomb shattered his Humvee and threw him from the gun turret.
Downing lay on the ground, his legs splayed and bleeding, for more than 30 minutes as a gunfight raged around him. He was airlifted to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and later to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, where he was married while lying in bed less than a week after the explosion.
“You get over it. If you don’t, then you’re in trouble. Pick up and move on,’’ Downing said. “There’s no reason to feel bad for us. The last thing you want is someone’s sympathy.’’
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