It's become common practice for military members long deployed overseas to surprise their family with a return trip home. Last night, that surprise got a hockey twist to it in Mankato.
During the first intermission of Friday night's game between Minnesota State and Wisconsin, Juanita Lagred and her three children were brought out onto the ice to shoot pucks at a masked goalie. After the kids shot a few pucks, the goalie dropped his pads and removed his mask to reveal that he was their father, Air Force captain Nathan Lagred, home a week early from a seven month deployment to Afghanistan.
Courtesy of the Minnesota State athletic department, here is video of the homecoming.