"We want gold! We want gold!”

Hockey fans chant that just about anytime gold is up for grabs.

We chanted it at the 2010 Winter Olympics Games in Vancouver last year. We chanted it at the 2011 IIHF World Junior Championships in Buffalo, N.Y.

Somewhere in Ron MacLean's hockey psyche, a labyrinth of memories from boyhood in the Yukon to adulthood in Toronto, the affinity for gold has never been far away.

MacLean, the host for CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, said the Robert Service poem entitled Spell of the Yukon sums up his feelings about his time in the territory.

"I wanted the gold, and I got it – Came out with a fortune last fall, – Yet Somehow life's not what I thought it, And somehow the gold isn't all,” MacLean said over a conference call during a press conference for Scotiabank's Hockey Day in Canada held at Sport Yukon this morning.

"It's like it everywhere in Canada, the love affair with the game; they were chanting

"We want gold!” and there's a real core aspect of my upbringing that comes from the Yukon,” MacLean said.

MacLean's father, Ron Sr., was stationed at the military base in Whitehorse, settling his family in the Yukon capital for five formative years.

Here, MacLean had his first communion, first day of school, first time on skates, first time attending a game.

One rich memory: MacLean remembers vividly trying to sleep on Christmas Eve in Hillcrest, heard footsteps lumber up the hall and, thinking it was Santa Claus, shut his eyes tight – "because I didn't want Santa to think I was a bad guy,” he said – only to awake the next morning with a replica of the Stanley Cup on his nightstand.

Such are his memories of the place, and come February his father and his wife Cari will be joining him north.

"I don't know what it is, but I had (those memories) built into me from my five years living in Whitehorse,” MacLean added.

The local organizing committee (LOC) for Hockey Day in Canada also announced the final sales for the regular season Western Hockey League Game between the Vancouver Giants and the Kamloops Blazers at Takhini Arena on Feb. 12.

Tonight, between 7-9 p.m., Yukon communities outside of Whitehorse will have the chance to call in to Sport Yukon to buy up 150 tickets.

The number to call for tickets for the WHL game is 1-866-295-0605.

Tickets are priced at $30 and there is a limit of two tickets per person.

In addition, there will be another 150 tickets sold in Whitehorse at Sport Yukon on Saturday starting at 11 a.m.

The following VIPs confirmed to attend the Hockey Day festivities were also announced earlier today: CBC's Don Cherry and Kelly Hrudy, former NHLers Trevor Linden and Wendel Clark, and Olympian Danielle Goyette, among others.

Peter Mansbridge and The National will also be on-site Feb. 11.

CBC's coverage for Hockey Day in Canada will begin 9 a.m. PST in Whitehorse with hockey stories from coast to coast, and be followed by back-to-back-to-back NHL games: the Ottawa Senators vs. the Edmonton Oilers (11 a.m.), the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. the Montreal Canadiens (4 p.m.) and the Calgary Flames vs. the Vancouver Canucks.