The Third Annual Congressional Hockey Challenge
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 Players pose for a photograph
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The third annual Congressional Hockey Challenge was held Thursday night at the Verizon Center, where a hockey team comprised of members of Congress and congressional staffers fell to a squad comprised of lobbyists by a score of 5-3.
The lawmakers team featured Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), Pat Meehan (R-Pa.), Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) and Larry Buschon (R-Ind.). The event raised more than $100,000 for the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, a Washington D.C. based youth hockey club.
Weiner played goalie for the lawmakers for most of the game, and Kerry was out on the ice as much as any other offensive player, despite having had both of his hips replaced in the past two years.
Over in the lawmakers bench area, three well-known professional hockey players mingled with the politicos: 2010 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane (a native of Higgins' Buffalo, N.Y. district), former Carolina Hurricanes goalie Kevin Weekes, and former Boston Bruins right wing Willie O'Ree, who made history in 1958 as the first black player in the National Hockey League. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was also on the sidelines the entire evening.
On Friday, Patrick Kane and his Blackhawks teammates will visit President Obama at the White House, where they will take part in a youth street hockey clinic on the South Lawn with Quigley and Higgins, among others. — Report and photographs by Christina Wilkie
Zach McEvoy, son of lawmakers player Jeff McEvoy, sang the National Anthem
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Washington Capitals star Mike Knuble drops the first puck
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Lawmakers goalie Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) talks to reporters
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Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.)
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Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)
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National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman
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Former Carolina Hurricanes goalie Kevin Weekes
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Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and hockey great Willie O'Ree, a former Boston Bruins player and the first black athlete in the NHL
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Willie O'Ree with lawmakers player Stephen Kraly and two young fans
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Team Lawmakers
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