Hockey mom Michelle Nott presses play on the DVD player.

The Petitcodiac-Salisbury Bantam A Flyers, along with their parents, watch the big screen set up in the Petitcodiac Arena in the small New Brunswick village some 25-kilometres west of Moncton, Tuesday night, five time zones away.

Nott can't wait to unveil the secret she's kept for two weeks.

The screen lights up.

Ron MacLean, CBC's Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster, appears.

"To the Petitcodiac-Salisbury Bantam A Flyers, Ron MacLean, Hockey Night in Canada,” he starts. "I hope you have a great practise here today … I have some wonderful news for you: as you know, you've entered the Big Save competition, and what you've won, you've been trying to save money just to get up to Toronto – you're going a lot farther than that. You're going up, on Feb. 12, to visit us in Whitehorse, Yukon, the host city of Hockey Day in Canada this year. It's going to be a very special weekend.”

There was a lot to unpack in MacLean's address, which left the players stunned.

To start, the Flyers had no idea they were entered in Scotiabank's Big Save months ago.

In the fall, Nott entered her son Alex's team through a link on the Facebook group Hockey Moms in Canada, a website on which hockey moms share stories, recipes and contests.

"Strangely enough, I'm not a contest enterer, I guess I had just too much time on my hands,” Nott said, adding that she entered another contest in the summer and won a print of Sydney Crosby's golden goal to win the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Some people are just lucky.

Six weeks after entering her second contest, she got the call.

The Flyers won – airplane tickets to Vancouver to hop on the charter flight with the Western Hockey League teams the Vancouver Giants and Kamloops Blazers, who will square off at Takhini Arena on Hockey Day in Canada; have their arrival filmed by CBC; meet NHL alumni; playoff against the Whitehorse Bantam ‘B' Mustangs at the Canada Games Centre.

Accommodations.

Meals.

Transportation.

"I was totally blown away,” Nott said. "It just took me by surprised, I was so surprised that this was happening, and I couldn't take all the information in at one time, I just kept thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing.'”

"You'll have to forgive me for my giddiness, I'm just over the moon here over all this,” she told the Star.

The Flyers were stunned, as you can imagine.

As was coach Randy Howatt.

"Coming from a village of 1,500 people – it's not like it's the city of Whitehorse, it's the village of Petitcodiac – it's the talk of the town; everybody in the village (I run the local grocery store here actually) and the talk's been unbelievable,” Howatt said.

"The concept of the whole thing and the way it's working and what's going to happen, it's blown this village apart.

"This is just going to be a dream come true for them. They won't understand it until they actually get there and get back.”

He's hoping the team can mingle with the WHL players during their two hour flight together from Vancouver.

"My kids will be, gosh, everyone of them will have their eyes as big as saucers, and trying to pay attention, and hopefully they'll ask a bunch of questions and then they'll find out about what real hockey is all about and push themselves to where they wanna be,” he said.

The team – made up of 17 boys and one girl, 13-14 year olds – thought they were in for a tough practice, a "skating your guts out type of thing,” Nott added.

"I think for each and every one of them, it's going to probably be one of the major happenings in their lives that they'll always remember,” Nott added.

"Some of our kids haven't even been on planes before, probably a lot of them haven't been out of New Brunswick, so this is something beyond their comprehension, really.”

Even Alex had no idea the secret his mother was harbouring.

"My mom told me that she entered the contest but she just told me she won a duffle bag … she actually won and I didn't know…I was shocked,” Alex said.

"I think it's going to be pretty fun … meeting Don Cherry, playing and being on TV.”

Michelle admitted that she came close to spilling the beans to Alex Monday night, almost wishing her son would ask her to tell him.

He never. She didn't.

"It was extremely hard,” she said. "But then by Tuesday morning I got a hold of myself and said, ‘No, I've come too close, I don't want to ruin it for anyone.' And their reaction was worth it all – it was priceless.”

To enter the Big Save contest, minor hockey teams across the country were encouraged to make a pledge to save money toward a team goal, empowering them to make small changes that, over time, make big differences.

Throughout the 2010-2011 hockey season, the Flyers' goal was to save for a trip to hockey tournament in Toronto via rented team bus.

And to play teams along the way in northern New Brunswick and Quebec, and also to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame and try to arrange taking in a Toronto Maple Leafs practice.

"That kind of experience of a lifetime,” Michelle said. "That was one thing, but this is out of this world.”

Rather than continue to pursue the trip to Toronto (a quarter of the deposit on the bus has been raised) the parents have been talking about buying the team warm winter jackets for the cold north and some spending money.

The odd time the Flyers will play in Nova Scotia, went to P.E.I. once, but that was the total extent of experience outside New Brunswick.

"We're really looking forward to seeing your guy's part of the world, we can't wait to see this,” Howatt said.

MacLean finished his address by adding: "So Alex and Adam, the two great goaltenders, we'll be featuring you on Hockey Day in Canada, Jessica Fawcett, you'll be there, the whole gang, you'll all be there, so I want you to put in a good practice today, because you got some memories coming from The Land of the Midnight Sun that you're going to Big Save the rest of your life. Congratulations.”