HALLOWELL — Mike Davis never played sports, and wasn’t thinking about starting. Then Christy Gardner smiled and made a suggestion.

“I don’t have any sports background,” Davis said. “She come to me at the VA one day and said, ‘You look like you could be a goalie!’

“I said, ‘Well, I never skated.’ She said, ‘Doesn’t matter. It’s completely different from standing up to sitting down.’ And it was.”

On Sunday morning, Davis was starting in goal for the New England Warriors in the first-ever Warriors vs. Civilians Charity Game. The sport being played at the Bank of Maine Ice Vault was sled hockey, and that’s where Gardner comes in.

In sled hockey, a player sits on something resembling a sled and uses two sticks with picks (like figure skates have) to move around the ice. The rules are much the same as ice hockey. Gardner’s a sled hockey veteran, and helped establish the Warriors team.

“I worked as a rec therapy intern last semester at the VA hospital,” Gardner said. “We were bowling next door, and I was like, ‘Oh, it’d be great to get the guys on the ice.’ So I came over to approach the rink about public skating for veterans. The rink offered us our own time during the weekday.

“I can’t skate stand-up, so I skate in a sled. I went out with the guys, and I was tooling around the ice in my sled, and they go, ‘I wanna try that!’ So we got a bunch of sleds, and from there it kind of morphed into a whole veterans sled hockey program.”

Josh Gould, a 35-year-old veteran of the Marines, played for the Warriors on Sunday, and has a 2-year-old daughter who has seen Gould play stand-up hockey.

“I’m actually a Wounded Warrior disabled vet,” Gould said. “So I was contacted through Christy through the VA. After the doctors advised against stand-up hockey, I found this. It’s been a great outlet.”

As the Warriors scored an insurance goal in the third period of their 4-0 victory, Gould raised his arms in triumph while trailing the play.

“It’s super-competitive,” Gould said. “We went to Vermont. I didn’t get a chance to go to Buffalo when the team went to Buffalo. There’s huge festivals for disabled people. It’s every bit as competitive as stand-up hockey.”

The 4-0 score was a cool note for Davis, a 58-year-old Air Force vet.

“It’s my second shutout,” Davis said. “Got one in New York. I also got a skunk 11-zip, too. Those guys were just beating me to death with that puck.”

Davis wasn’t the oldest player on the Warriors, though. Glenn Lowe, another Air Force veteran, is 66, and unlike Davis, he’s always played any sport he could find.

“Basketball. Baseball. I’m on the Golden Age Games team at Togus. I do javelin. Power walk. Horseshoes. Air rifle,” said Lowe, who played his first sled hockey game on Sunday and said he was still getting used to the rules. “I enjoyed (this) thoroughly. It’s just activity, and a lot of fun playing sports.”

“We’ve had nothing but positive reactions from our vets,” said Courtney Oliver, a recreational therapist at Togus. “They really like it. I think it levels the playing field for a lot of them. I was overhearing one of our vets this morning talk about not being able to do a lot of running, but he’s able to compete in this because he’s not up on his knees, and that’s not causing him so much pain.”

Liz Marrone is also a recreational therapist at Togus, and said that playing sled hockey takes more athletic ability than just the stamina to keep pumping your arms.

“One thing we try to do is be well-versed in some of the things that we help facilitate,” Marrone said. “So I’ve tried it. I fall over, and I can’t get back up. These folks really have a level of fitness and skill that is beyond good.”

It’s probably not surprising that the games are competitive and enjoyable. The sport focuses on what the players can do, rather than what they can’t, and gives them a sense of being part of something bigger than themselves. There were veterans watching in the warm room, and more fans in the stands.

“I think there’s a freedom behind it, being down in the sled, being close to the ice, and telling these guys they can play full-contact, normal hockey,” Gardner said. “Between the camaraderie of being vets, and having a common goal and bonding together, and being able to go out there and be physical and be aggressive, it’s something that appeals to a lot of our military nature.”

Davis, the guy with no background in sports, calls the team “a great, big new family for me.” He’s thrown himself into sled hockey.

“I’ve actually had some ladies come up from Connecticut and train, and I’m going down there (to) train, so I can get better,” Davis said. “I’d like to eventually get on the Olympic team. I think it’s 2016, the Paralympics. I’d really like to do that.”

The Warriors were supposed to play a team from Vermont on Sunday, but that team had to cancel, Gardner said.

“So we put it on Facebook, and said, ‘Anybody that can come play hockey, we’ll start a first annual military vs. civilians game,'” Gardner said. “And luckily, these guys pulled together and volunteered and came out for us. It was huge. They saved our butts.”

The Warriors don’t have any other games lined up. Gardner said they’ll take most of May and June off. But there will be a clinic at the Ice Vault from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on May 7.

“Basically, it’s an open clinic, open to any veteran that receives care in Maine or New Hampshire,” Gardner said. “They can come on up, and we’ll get ’em fitted for equipment, teach ’em the basics, and let ’em come tool around on the ice.”

Tooling around on the ice. It even sounds fun. And if there are other benefits along with it, that’s not bad, either.

“For the most part, it’s a little intimidating when they first start, but you should see their faces light up when they realize it’s something they can still do, still be competitive, and be a part of a unit again,” Gardner said. “I think being a part of a unit is one thing a lot of us miss from the service.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Matt_DiFilippo

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