Shea McClellin had never picked up a hockey stick before Sunday night. But the Bears defensive end certainly didn't look like a novice when he stepped onto the United Center ice.
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| Sharing the same uniform number with NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, Shea McClellin scored two goals Sunday night. |
With a crowd of more than 20,000 roaring its approval, McClellin turned toward the other goal, which had a board with only one small slot in it. The 6-3, 260-pounder took aim at the tiny opening and fired it right through on his second shot.
"I had never even touched a hockey stick until [Sunday] night," McClellin said. "It was interesting. I thought it was going to take a couple warm-up shots, but I made the first shot. That surprised me a little bit. And then the second one you've got to hit straight, so that surprised me too."
Although McClellin grew up in a state that borders Canada, he said that hockey isn't very popular in Idaho and he never learned how to skate. On Sunday night, the 2012 first-round draft pick from Boise State had a chance to practice shooting a puck in a hallway before stepping onto the ice.
"We got to hit it against the wall 10 feet away from us," he said. "But it was kind of hard to tell what the trajectory was going to be. Going out there on the ice was a lot different."
