Ticket D-75142.
That was the lucky 50/50 number held by Prince George Cougars fan Anthony Santos that was drawn Monday afternoon at CN Centre.
Shortly after Ken Sands of the PG Cougars 50/50 Society drew the ticket from the red draw barrel at the arena's concourse, Santos stepped forward to claim his amount of $33,533 in the biggest jackpot in franchise history.
Santos, a local resident, bought the ticket himself part way through the first period of Saturday's WHL game between the Cougars and the Victoria Royals.
The other half of the funds will go towards the Shelly L. Mrkonjic ALS Research Fund, to honour of the memory of Cougars winger Tyler Mrkonjic's mother Shelly, who died of ALS in 2006.
Cougar majority owner Greg Pocock dropped $25,000 into the 50/50 pot, which guaranteed a large payday. The Cougars gave away 50/50 tickets to season ticket holders and their volunteers.
In all, $67,066 was collected from a crowd of 5,404 fans.
Andy Beesley, the Cougars vice-president of business said the biggest challenge of the night was the overwhelming support – both emotionally and literally.
"Emotionally it was really great to see the crowd cheer on Tyler and from talking to him he was deeply touched and honoured," said Beesley. "His dad (Frank) dropped the puck for the opening face-off.
"Literally, the 50/50 system was system was overwhelmed with the number of tickets being purchased. The ticket printer printed out one ticket for every one purchased. It had to spit out every ticket. On a good night, between 10 to 15,000 tickets are printed. On Saturday, there were close to 85,000 tickets. We had to stop sales at the end of the first intermission to allow all the tickets to be printed out. Both the Cougars and the gaming branch wanted to make sure we printed every single ticket."
Beesley said the organization learned a lot from the process and that it's provided motivation to look at bigger and better things for fans as long as it's for the right reasons in the community.
When the team initially sketched out Saturday, it didn't realize how well the draw would go over with the fans and the city.
"It was really tough to gauge the support at the beginning and we didn't realize the level of the support would be over the top," said Beesley. "And it happened to be one the most exciting games of the year (a 4-3 11-round shootout win for Victoria). Whether people won or lost, 100 per cent of the fans felt like they were part of an amazing night. And as an employee of the PG Cougars having an owner like Greg who donated $25,000, it's really a testament of to rebuilding a new ice age in Prince George. The dedication to rebuilding this team is second to none."
The Cougars are 7-1-0-2 in their last 10 games and have six games remaining in the regular season. They have a four-point lead on Kamloops for the third-placed playoff spot in the B.C. Division.
The Cats are in Kamloops Wednesday night, Tri-Cities Friday and in Portland Saturday. Their next home game is March 18 against Kamloops, the team directly behind them in the B.C. Division.
