Teammates step up with benefit for skater riddled with cancer

June 19, 2014 at 10:55p.m.

STRUTHERS

For years, they’d fought their opponents together.

But in September, a diagnosis of three cancers forced Dean Macklen, now 23 and a 2009 graduate of Struthers High School, to sit out hockey, the game he’d played since childhood, and to fight this new opponent — seemingly without the assistance of his teammates.

Kristopher Johnson, 24, one of those former teammates, wanted to make sure that Macklen — his friend since the age of 10 — knew he wasn’t alone. Though he couldn’t personally endure Macklen’s treatment, he could back him throughout the battle.

About a month ago, Johnson began organizing what would become the “Hockey’s More Than Just a Game” event, scheduled for Saturday at the Ice Zone, 360 McClurg Road in Boardman.

A two-period hockey game with a lights-out shootout will be from 4:15 to 5 p.m., followed by public skating from 5 to 6:45 p.m. Admission is $5 per person, per event, and tickets will be sold at the door Saturday.

An auction — which will feature baskets containing prizes such as personal training sessions and private hockey lessons — also will take place at the event, with tickets available for $1 each or $5 for six.

“Hockey’s more than just a game. ... Relationships are built on and off the ice,” Johnson said. “I wanted to offer support for his kind of game, where his opponent is cancer.”