Unified Special Hockey of Maine, Maine Highlanders planning adaptive speed skating, hockey festival

ORONO, Maine (WABI) - Unified Special Hockey of Maine and the Maine Highlanders are gearing up for an adaptive speed skating and hockey festival from Oct. 27-29 at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.

The players are back from a Boston Bruins Foundation street hockey event along with Special Olympics Massachusetts, the American Special Hockey Association, and the Boston Police Department.

The Maine organization is hoping to raise community awareness in its home state for the adaptive winter sports.

“We have a good option to grow and make it bigger for more people to be involved,” said Kristian Joliat, forward/defenseman.

“This is actually something I just started doing. As soon as I started watching Boston play, I was like, ‘you know what, I want to start a life and a legacy of becoming a hockey player,’” said Sean Hallee, forward/defenseman.

“I like to block people’s shots. I like to do stuff that the defensemen do. I’ve always loved (Zdeno) Chara. He doesn’t take any crap from anyone,” said Noah Gagne, defenseman/goaltender.

Unified Special Hockey of Maine is the first program of its kind in the state.

Organizers are hoping to help blind, deaf, unified, special, and sled adaptive athletes.

For up-to-date program schedules, visit their Facebook page or MaineHighlanders.com.

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