The community was the real winner when a team of employees and executives from the Sterling Heights, Mich.,-based Stahls’ faced off against a squad of former Detroit Red Wing players in a charity ice hockey game benefiting the Clark Park Coalition, Jan. 30, 2016, at Detroit’s Clark Park Ice Rink.The matchup ended with the Wings edging out Stahls’ with a score of 9-8. Three of Ted and Mary Stahl’s children were on the team: Dan, Trevor, and Kari.

The game was the highlight of this year’s annual The Frozen Fish Fiasco outdoor hockey series, and the only game for which admission was charged. Despite the fund-raising purpose of the Stahls’-Red Wings match, the Stahls’ team took it seriously. The 17 players drawn from the staff all had “extensive experience on the ice,” noted Stahls’ Sports Marketing Coordinator Paul Sabatini. “Within our offices, we have a lot of people who have played hockey, but we had never played together before. We didn’t want to be embarrassed,” he said.

To help them put their best skate forward, the Stahls’ team enlisted the services of Olympic Gold Medalist and St. Clair Shores native Mark Wells, to lead four practice sessions and coach them in the game. Wells was a defenseman on the 1980 U.S.A. Men’s Olympic Hockey team.

The Stahls’ team appreciated the chance to work with and play for Wells in this unique opportunity to “pay it forward” to the next generation. “[Wells] had a huge effect on my hockey career, Sabatini recalled. “I was 10 years old when he was on that 1980 Olympic team…To have [Wells] share his wisdom with us was unreal.”

One hundred percent of the funds raised from the event will go to the Clark Park Coalition, according to Erica Swoish of the Detroit-based Franco Public Relations Group. The coalition partners with the City of Detroit to maintain and operate the Clark Park Ice Rink, which is the city’s only regulation-size outdoor ice rink, and help keep the park and its various year-round programs open and thriving.

Participating Red Wings alumni included Darren McCarty, Peter Klima and Mickey Redmond. “The game was a great opportunity for us to take part in something that will help kids,” Sabatini said. “We all remember being young and starting out with sports and having parks to go to. Any help we can give is great.”  MORE INFO