Local hockey players experienced the game from a new perspective on Monday. The Bantam and Peewee Morden Hawks took part in a fundraiser sledge hockey game in Winkler, a chance to "walk a mile in somebody else's shoes," Organizer Nancy Spenst explains.

"To be able-bodied but on the ice as if they weren't, to see what it's like for these kids who don't have the use of their legs," she says. "To experience that was a bit of an eye-opener."

The second annual Sledge Hockey Game Fundraiser, hosted by the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Manitoba and the Manitoba Sledgehammers took place at the Winkler Arena February 19.

Braden Pettinger dropped the ceremonial puck to kick off the event. Pettinger is recovering after being paralyzed from the chest after a hockey accident in 2015. After fracturing his C5 vertebra in several places from falling into the boards during his first Portage Terriers game, Pettinger was told he'd never walk again. However, he keeps optimistic that he will get out of his wheelchair one day.

While many of the younger players look up to him, Pettinger says they are the true inspiration.

When asked to come out to Winkler, he says it was an easy decision.

"Winkler and this area were great to me when I had my injury," he says. "They did lots of fundraising at that time... this community really helped me out a lot."

His focus remains on recovery as he continues rehab in Regina, Saskatchewan.

"Continuing to get stronger every day," he says, adding being able to walk again is a realistic goal for his situation.