Sports

Man of the Year Hudson Fasching accepts community award for Tucson Roadrunners

BY ERIC NEWMAN

Despite the halt of regular season play in the AHL due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tucson Roadrunners right winger Hudson Fasching still re- ceived a bit of good news. Fasching was named the team’s IOA/Ameri- can Specialty Man of the Year for the 2019-20 season for his efforts off the ice.

Due to the win, Fasching is now one of the finalists for the league’s Yanick Dupre Memorial Award. The winner of the overall IOA/American Specialty Man of the Year will be named at a later date.

Fasching says a media staffer from the team notified him on April 6 of his nomination. He says the rec- ognition “felt good.”

“They know I’m trying to do the best I can. My intentions are always try- ing to help the c o m m u n i t y and just trying to help everyone around as best I can. I give a lot of that credit to Tuc- son Roadrunners staff for setting me up to be successful and helping the community, too,” Fasching says.

Throughout his season and career with the Roadrunners, Fasching has made several appearanc- es for the team. His highlight, though, was a visit to Dia-

mond Children’s Medical Center in January.

At the medical center, he visited kids to joke and talk hockey—any- thing that could take their mind off of their illness. He says the experience also motivates him to continue offthe-ice activities to spread positivity and fun even when he cannot play.

“You kind of have a better perspec- tive of what they’re going through, and just kind of understanding how hard it is,” he says.

“You’re just trying to find oth- er things to distract them from the struggles they’re going through at the time, and it’s personal.”

While he is waiting on the league announcement, Fasching is hard at work trying to stay in shape. He is hoping the COVID-19 pandemic will come to enough of a halt to safely allow players back into the rink for practices and eventually games. At this point, players would normally be preparing to attempt an AHL playoff run.

The Roadrunners have a group text chat going in the meantime, he says, where players periodically give updates on their lives and exercise routines. Ice time is hard to come by, so many are not skating, but Fasching says he is doing what he can to keep up his abilities should a reprieve from the quarantine come.

“Being game ready is hard, but at the same time, you know, I can make some gains right now in terms of strength and speed that under nor- mal circumstances would be much more challenging,” he says.

ACROSS

1 Easter treat 4 Wager 7 Retain 11 Metric measure 13 Rowboat need 14 Sleeping 15 Flow like molasses 16 Chum, nowadays 17 Actor Brad 18 Grassland 20 Opening course, often 22 Erstwhile garment 24 Hitchcock classic 28 Spotted insect 32 Radiant 33 Champing at the bit 34 Bathroom fixture 36 Yorkshire river 37 Narc’s measures 39 Croquet equipment 41 Catch 43 Second person 44 Related to 5-Down 46 Use a Brillo pad 50 Ballerina’s frill 53 Cauldron 55 Japanese zither 56 Press 57 Flightless bird 58 Calendar quota 59 Trudge 60 Kenny G’s instrument 61 That girl

DOWN

1 Ids’ counterparts 2 Get bigger 3 Middle East strip 4 Go up and down 5 Listeners 6 Army unit 7 Carefree 8 Sapporo sash 9 Allow 10 Banned insecticide 12 Carousel 19 Light touch 21 Portion of N.A. 23 Eviscerate 25 Hint 26 Emcee 27 Hasn’t paid yet 28 Michigan, for one 29 Not “fer” 30 Nincompoop 31 Wrigley product 35 Reddish-brown horse 38 Perched 40 -- Angeles 42 They’re calling

Danny Boy 45 Prolonged sleep 47 Fawns’ mothers 48 Hexagonal state 49 Induce ennui 50 Gratuity 51 Web address 52 Excessively 54 Monkey suit

SUDOKU TIME

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

GO FIGURE!

by Linda Thistle

The idea of Go Figure is to arrive at the figures given at the bottom and right-hand columns of the diagram by following the arithmetic signs in the order they are given (that is, from left to right and top to bottom). Use only the numbers below the diagram to complete its blank quares and use each of the nine numbers only once.

DIFFICULTY THIS MONTH H H Moderate HH Challenging HHH HOO BOY!

DIFFICULTY THIS MONTH H H H H Moderate HH Difficult HHH GO FIGURE!

SCRAMBLERS

Unscramble the letters within each rectangle to form four ordinary words. Then rearrange the boxed letters to form the mystery word, which will complete the gag!