SIT back, relax and be guided on a magical history tour of Horatio Schlinger's somewhat complex route to Blackburn Arena.

The journey starts with Grandpa Schlinger, a German Jew from Romania living in 1930s London.

The onset of the Second World War results in deportation, with son Vernon, to Romania.

Vernon meets a pretty Romanian girl, Maya, as communism takes a grip of Eastern Europe.

The family qualify for a visa to Rome through their Jewish background.

Grandad Schlinger stays in Rome, while Vernon and Maya move back to London.

Baby Horatio - a Shakespeare-inspired Christian surname - appears on the scene as Vernon uproots to take his chance in Calgary, Canada.

Some 29 years on - a few fat lips and five knee operations under his belt - Horatio decides to try his hand on the European ice hockey scene. He arrives in Blackburn in a hail of publicity after practising with crack NHL side Calgary Flames during the recent players' strike - rubbing shoulders with the Wayne Gretzkys and Larry Robinsons of this world.

Schlinger realised the limit of his potential in Canadian hockey.

"The big hurdle would have been my age," he confessed.

"I thought I held my own in the practising and playing with the top players, but I think part of the battle is knowing where you stand in the big picture.

"It wasn't worth me going in and saying 'I want a shot at the title'."

But he now has a shot at the Division One title as part of Ryan Kummu's revolution.

After 17 games between the pipes for the Hawks only one netminder had a better save per centage than Schlinger's 89.21.

Focusing on the sporting task ahead is not a problem.

Settling in Blackburn, a far cry from the bright lights of Calgary, has not been quite so simple.

Just 45 minutes from home in Canada are the Rocky Mountains and a further half-hour drive and the premium ski resort of Lake Louise is within reach.

Now, when not training on the ice, he has to choose between a town centre coffee shop or an afternoon in front of the video machine.

"I'm not exactly homesick but, as I look from our house in Knuzden towards town, the lights along Revidge remind me of a road back home and it feels good.

"I look at very odd things like that," said Horatio.

Many say you have to be slightly odd to take up a position between the pipes in the first place.

Schlinger took up the game at the age of five and, after returning home black and blue on more than one occasion, his parents forked out for all the protective gear.

"I think it's one of the safest parts of the ice," he said.

However, his 'butterfly' style of keeping has taken its toll on his knees.

Netminding falls into three broad categories - stand-up keepers, floppers and butterflies.

Stand-ups stop the puck standing up, floppers lie on the ice and butterflies drop to the ice, legs apart and knees together, so annihilating their cartilages.

"I have less than half a cartilage left in one knee, but I still think hockey is safe compared to American Football where you have 325lb guys running over you," Horatio said. One of the philosophies Kummu has introduced at the Arena is a tougher mental approach, to stop sides and individual opponents walking all over his men.

It is a typically focused Canadian approach to sport and sporting life and one which Schlinger translates into his business life.

He runs his own company providing the link between major companies, usually sports equipment manufacturers, and star players.

Deals clinched include goalie facemask endorsements for Don Boprey of the Ottawa Senators and the Flames' Trevor Kidd.

It was those contacts which led to the occasional charity representative appearance for the NHL against a university side during the strike, a huge leap from senior men's hockey with the Brandon Wheatkings.

The game even prompted Vernon - who cannot skate - and Maya - an excitable spectator - to watch their son in action.

That game was the pinnacle of his career but the Hawks is far from a poor substitute.

For instance, Schlinger is proud to be on the same ice as the flying Ukrainian Oleg Sinkov.

He said: "Oleg could play in the NHL if he was younger. Sometimes I sit there and I'm amazed at his movement of the puck and his ability."

And that is some reference.

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