Looking past the lockout

Fred Lampe remembers spending many nights talking with his Roman Catholic High teammates wondering when, and if, the lockout would ever end.

As much as the 18-year-old forward wanted to see his favorite team, the Colorado Avalanche, back on the ice, he wasn’t about to let the National Hockey League’s labor dispute keep him from the sport he loves.

"In the locker room we would talk about the lockout, but we still wanted to win the championship no matter what," Lampe said. "We would talk about whether the Flyers would play or not."

With the NHL set to hit the ice come fall, the 2005 Roman Catholic grad is looking forward to seeing some games. Not content to just sit in the stands, Lempe will follow up his stellar high-school career by playing at Division I Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., with the hope of catching a Sabres-Flyers match-up.

As part of the NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement, fans can expect some changes to the sport, such as adding a shootout to decide a winner.

"The shootout will make the game more interesting," Lampe said. "If not by this season, by next season there will be a lot more fans."

In past seasons, if two teams tied, the squads played five minutes of overtime with the first team scoring declared the winner. If neither scored, the game was a tie.

With the new agreements, if teams play a scoreless overtime, each will select three players for a shootout and the team with the most goals will be declared the winner. If the score remains tied, the shootout then becomes sudden death.

TIES HAVE NEVER been an issue for Lampe – he is accustomed to winning. His Roman Catholic ice hockey team won three InterCounty Scholastic League championships over four seasons, but the three-time All-Catholic athlete watched last season’s championship win from the bench because of a torn right rotator cuff.

"I was in so much pain that I couldn’t even brush my teeth," said Lampe, who tallied three goals and eight assists last season. "I wanted to be out there with my teammates as they won."

The college-bound athlete is hoping to get his shoulder back to 100 percent with the goal of playing in college during his sophomore year.

Watching from the sidelines was difficult as Lampe has been playing the sport nonstop since age 4. Like most South Philly kids, his ice-hockey roots go back to Rizzo Rink, Front Street and Washington Avenue, home to South Philly’s only ice-hockey program.

The rink runs an in-house program for ages 5 to 13 with Learn to Play Ice Hockey for beginners. Today, there are more than 300 participants in the rink’s various ice-hockey programs.

The rink was the first step in giving Lampe a foundation for better opportunities in the sport, like playing travel and high-school ice hockey. In 2001, he played with the Voorhees, N.J.,-based Gladiators, who participated in a national tournament. He also spent time with the Little Flyers junior squad.

The chance to play ice hockey was one of the reasons Lampe picked Roman Catholic over South Philadelphia-based high schools. Another draw was he did not know many people at the Center City school, which was a chance to widen his circle of friends.

Lempe turned out to be a solid contributor to the high-school team’s success, which included leading his squad with 16 goals during his junior year. Now, he is heading north to continue his education and his game at the college where his former Rizzo Rink coach, Frank Giosa, attended.

"He would tell me about [Canisius College] and I thought it would be a perfect fit," Lampe said.

But the athlete doesn’t see a future playing in the pros.

"Playing in the NHL used to be a dream, but now I want to be a doctor for a pro team," he said. "Plus, I am only 5-foot-7."