Playing in front of family special for Devlin
Dylan Devlin has spent many a day skating around the Dunedin Ice Rink.
It was like a second home for the Ice Black playing the sport at school and throughout his 100 caps for the Dunedin Thunder.
But there will be no games quite as special as this week, representing the Ice Blacks at the division 2, group B world championships on his home ice.
It is the first chance for Devlin — who is originally from Dunedin but now lives in Queenstown — to pull on the black jersey in front of his entire family at home.
"They sacrificed a lot for me to play and a lot of money put into me — getting them to see me play for the country is pretty special," Devlin said.
The forward, who is playing in his second world tournament and has played in several transtasman series, has nearly seen it all when it comes to the ice hockey scene in his home town.
But sitting in the stands and seeing the way the community came out to support the Ice Fernz during their tournament a fortnight ago was "electric", and only added to the buzz for the Ice Blacks.
"It was very, very cool.
"I've never seen Dunedin like that for the women's so I'm very excited to be on the ice on that side."
The Ice Blacks made a good start to their quest for gold, beating Chinese Taipei, but were thumped 5-0 by Georgia on Monday night.
Devlin acknowledged every game was tough and they needed to turn up to leave their best perfomance on the ice.
"Every game's kind of like a gold-medal game, you know.
"You can't slack off."
After growing up playing rugby, Devlin took to ice hockey at intermediate, through a European coach who encouraged him to train every day.
That passion followed through when he was at King's High School and later made his Thunder debut at 17.
There was plenty of bench-warming in those early days, but had it not been for those experiences, Devlin acknowledges he might never have got to the international ice.
"Just being part of the environment gets you to where you are today, you know."
He spent about 12 seasons with the Thunder, and played 100 games, before deciding it was time to try something new and heading for Queenstown.
After two seasons with the Stampede under his belt, Devlin relished the change, calling it a big opportunity to spend more time playing hockey in a tight community.
Devlin, who has recently gone out on his own as a builder, is also giving back to the sport that has given him so much and helping foster the next generation of talent.
"I help the under-12s quite a bit after work. It's kind of fun.
"I mean, I got that when I was here, so giving it back is kind of what you do, I guess, when you grow up."
Ice hockey was a different sport in the New Zealand sporting landscape but that, alongside its intensity, was why Devlin loved it.
"You tell a lot of Kiwis around New Zealand about ice hockey and they don't even know it's a sport here.
"It's quite unique as well."
After having yesterday off, the Ice Blacks are back in action against Thailand tonight.
kayla.hodge@odt.co.nz
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