Champion Sports Bar makes way for Canadian hockey nuts

Story and photos By GREG McMILLAN The Pop Report

SANTO DOMINGO - It goes without saying that the Dominican Republic is not a hockey hotbed. Baseball, dominoes and cockfighting rank number 1, 2, and 3 among locals.

But for Canadians here, the World Cup hockey final between Canada and Finland was a big thing, stirring the nationalistic fervor. It didnât matter that the game was being played thousands of miles away in Toronto. They needed to be a part of it.

With that in mind, a small group of Canadians made their way to the Champions Sports Bar in the Hotel Jaragua on George Washington Boulevard (The Malecon) to get their fix. We got there, but it was just baseball and soccer on all the TVs in the bar. No one there knew anything about a big hockey game.

A quick explanation to the bar staff, however, changed all that. They were coaxed to switch the satellite dish signal so that we could watch. Not only that, they turned the loud merengue music down, lowered the big-screen TV and turned the volume up on the game. We were in heaven. Special treatment. Looking around the room at all the Dominicans and foreign tourists wondering what was happening was interesting to say the least.

 

The game had barely started when Canadaâs Joe Sakic scored on a wondrous setup by Mario Lemieux and we were out of seats, with the obligatory ãyeah! and fists thrust into the air, just like back home. The stares that came back at us were priceless. By the second period, the novelty had pretty well worn off for the non-hockey people in the bar, and we were getting impatient glances.

A couple of patrons came up and asked how much more time was left etc.etc. But they hung in, the bar kept the game on and we had a chance to jump up two more times, as Canada kept scoring, including a super effort by Shane Doan on the eventual winning goal, to give Canada a 3-2 win. The minute the final whistle ended it, however, the sound from the TV went off, the screen was rolled up, the merengue came back with a vengeance and the dance floor quickly filled up.

It didnât matter. We were all glad that we got together and the good guys had won. A little slice of Canadiana in the heart of the Caribbean.