Blue Jackets alums welcome Wright-Patt skaters to a new hockey experience

Growing up in suburban Boston, Kenzie Kattich says she was first on skates about the same time she started walking.
Now a member of the United States Air Force Security Forces stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside of Dayton, Kattich has been assigned to such posts as Texas, Missouri and now the Buckeye State in her military career.

Coming out of high school, Kattich was offered the chance to play college hockey in her home state, but the military life called. One thing that has consistently traveled with her, though, is her hockey bag.
"I've found places anywhere I can (to play)," she said. "The first thing I do when I get an assignment is go online and find a hockey program I can join. It's a great outlet. If you've had a long day of work, you get off and go play some hockey. It's great."
When Kattich was assigned to Wright-Patterson, it took only a couple of emails to end up on the unofficial Wright Flyers hockey squad, which includes both military and civilian personnel supporting various missions at the base.
And that led to her being in Nationwide Arena on Thursday afternoon skating on the main ice as the Blue Jackets welcomed the Flyers for a pregame scrimmage for the second year in a row. Ahead of the team's annual Military Appreciation Night, members of the Wright-Patterson team skated with and against Blue Jackets alumni for a hockey experience no one will soon forget.

"It's incredible," said goaltender Ryan Provost, an Ohio native who is a project manager for the Air Force Civil Service. "This is my Stanley Cup, for sure. I can't thank the Jackets enough for showing appreciation for the military. The military has been great to me and a lot of these guys, but getting that appreciation from your favorite hometown team is pretty amazing."
Seven different Blue Jackets alumni took part in the contest, including team broadcasters Jody Shelley and Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, front office members Rich Nash, Chris Clark and Aaron Johnson, as well as former players Brandon Dubinsky and Fedor Tyutin.
Those Jackets alums spent as much time asking the Wright-Patterson players about their jobs and their families just as much as the Flyers wanted to know what it was like to play in the NHL. For those who have served our country, the chance to not just be recognized but share a memory with those who have been cheered on the ice stands out, said Chris Miller, a former Middle East Foreign Area Officer and Intelligence Office in the Army who now works for Defense Security Cooperation University.
"Some of us have been on the other end of the spectrum," Miller said. "It's one thing to watch the Super Bowl or a Stanley Cup playoff game when you're in a tent somewhere in the desert getting shot at, so it's nice to be able to come back and enjoy these opportunities within the community. It's really classy for the organization to put this together."
Members of the Wright-Patterson team have different backgrounds when it comes to their on-ice experience. Miller actually played at Shattuck St. Mary's, the elite prep school that has produced such talents as Sidney Crosby, while on the other side of things, one of the organizers of the team, Mike McGuire, is a day one CBJ fan who spent most of his life as a roller hockey player before converting to ice in 2019.
Members also hail from across the country, but there are some locals like Provost. He first fell in love with hockey when the Blue Jackets began back in 2000 and played at Springboro High School, then in intramural leagues as an undergraduate at Ohio State. Some of his earliest hockey memories include cheering on a couple of the players he had the chance to share the ice with Thursday.
"To be honest, I only came to hockey because of the Jackets," Provost said. "I came to my first game here at Nationwide Arena and fell in love with guys like Rick Nash and Joey Shelley. It's amazing to be out here and skate with them and getting to play on the ice with them on my team. It's all you can ask for is to get the chance to skate at Nationwide. It's an incredible feeling."
While the entire point of the game was friendly competition, score was kept, and in the end, there was a winner. With the teams tied 8-8 in the final 20 seconds, Sam Medvec was tripped up as he advanced toward the net, and the former CBJ players agreed he deserved a penalty shot.
A native of St. Cloud, Minn., who first got on skates at age 3 and played high school hockey, Medvec made no mistake as he put a shot past Provost, then celebrated along the boards in front of his family members.

"I was nervous," Medvec said. "I'm not a goal scorer, so I wasn't going to pull any moves or anything. I was just going to pick a side and shoot for it. (The former Blue Jackets) were great. They were cheering us on and supporting us the whole time. It was such a blast."
The members of the Wright-Patterson team all do their part to protect our country, and it's a stressful job. That's what makes hockey such an appealing way to handle the day-to-day stress, and all spoke of the camaraderie that is built on the base by those who can get out and skate with one another once a week.
It's an attachment to the sport they love that they've taken all over the world.
"I took my hockey bag pretty much everywhere I went around the world with the military," Miller said. "Every place I've gone I've been able to play with some really cool players -- Americans, Canadians, Europeans -- and it's cool to see how the sport is widespread and it united people."