I ended up with a day off on Sunday, but the time to myself was bittersweet.

See my day off was sealed on Saturday night when the Whitehorse Huskies were beaten by the Powell River Regals in an exciting 3-1 contest.

With nothing else on my plate besides the tentative fourth game in the Savage Cup series, I had one day out of the Easter long weekend to myself.

As a sports editor, having a real day off is a coveted thing. They don't often very happen, and when they do you take full advantage of them.

But truth be told, spending the weekend at the hockey games would most likely be what I would have done if I didn't have to for work. From the first Huskies game last fall, I became hooked on this underdog team.

I loved watching goalie Corey McEachran make the saves, and cringed with the rest of the crowd when a goal went in.

I enjoyed Derek Johnstone's team-leading offence and every goal he scored or assisted on.

Perhaps my favourite part was watching the imported players get behind our town and play their hearts out, and the fact that some of our home-town hockey heroes could skate with the best in AAA hockey.

The worst part of the games, however, was watching the crowd trickle down from a full-house on the first night, to the random spattering of hockey fans that attended this weekend's games.

I missed one game in the series in the middle of the season as I was on the Yukon Quest, and I was saddened on my return to see photos of empty bleacher seats at Takhini Arena taken by Vince Fedoroff.

That trend continued to spiral downward, until Saturday when there was almost more people on the ice than in the crowd.

I was disappointed, because I know the effort Randy Merkel and Jim King put into reviving this once great team.

I know it's hard to watch our boys lose. It was difficult to watch Corey's disappointment as he was unable to keep the puck out of his net, and I hated watching yet another two minutes be added to the scoreboard as our guys got frustrated and made some rough plays.

But I knew this was a part of hockey, and Randy knew it too. All season he kept asking the people of Whitehorse to be patient with him as he continued to develop the team.

The Huskies that played the Powell River Regals this past weekend was not the same one that started against them in November.

What I can say is that the people that didn't come to the games this weekend, truly missed out on some incredible hockey.

Yes it was Easter weekend, and I imagine families were out of town, it could be said this wasn't a great weekend for the games to be held. But with limited time before the Allan Cup tournament, and a Whitehorse Minor Hockey tournament taking up most of the ice space next weekend, it was the only time it could be held.

It would have been great for more people to come out and support the Huskies. Not just with their presence, cheering the team on, but financially. The Huskies needed great attendance to have a chance of carrying on next year.

For a hockey-crazy town like Whitehorse, I think we could have given our Huskies a bit more support as they did their very best to develop a team we could be proud of.

Because after all, they are our team. They wear their jerseys with the Huskies logo proudly. My hope is that there will be a reincarnation of the Whitehorse Huskies in the 2010/2011 season.

I hope that when the team does get to skate again, they don't do it to lacklustre attendance. Whitehorse needs to jump behind this team and support them, because it's hard to turn an underdog group to a top-dog team without a fan base.