Mahdi Asadi and his brother Hossein were wondering where Prince George people go, especially at night.
Having spent most of their lives in Tehran, the capital of Iran, a city whose daytime population swells to 14 million, it's common to see crowds of people day or night congregating in restaurants, nightclubs and market bazaars where you can buy just about anything.
But in Prince George, with only 80,000 or so residents, you have to look hard to find a bunch of faces together in one spot.
Last Saturday night at CN Centre, the Asadi brothers got their answer when they attended their first-ever hockey game and were part of a jam-packed crowd of 6,018 watching the Prince George Cougars play the Vancouver Giants.
And what a game it was.
The first-place Cougars delighted their fans, scoring early and often in what ended up a 7-1 victory.
Seven goals, two fights, a hat-trick performance from Cougars centre Koehn Zimmer and the energy supplied by an enthusiastic chock-a-block crowd on Community Heroes Weekend made it a memorable occasion for the Asadi brothers.
“Never back home did we have this opportunity to watch ice hockey being in a stadium, we saw it on the TV but it’s completely different sitting in the stadium,” said the 28-year-old Hossein.
“It was completely different compared to football (soccer). That’s like playing chess. They skate very fast so we have to focus completely to not miss anything.”
The Iranian brothers both grew up watching soccer played outdoors and also saw a lot of wrestling and volleyball in their home country. Where soccer players rely more on strategy and less on quick reactions, the tight confines of a hockey rink and speed of the skating players demand lightning reactions and quick puck movement. The skill he saw displayed on the ice by both teams was most impressive to the 40-year-old Mahdi.
“They have to make the right decision right at the moment, so it’s very energetic and very fantastic,” said Mahdi. “They’re only playing for 20 minutes (per period) but it’s complete energy, no-stop, no pause, the energy of this game is like electric, and I’m thrilled.
“It’s more exciting than soccer, where the field is much bigger, “ he said. “Here, everything is around you in a smaller location and it was fantastic because you got all the people’s energy.”
“I’m really surprised to be seeing a hockey game and the Cougars are fantastic. Now we are fans of the Cougars. Now I know why people are fans of this sport.”
Hossein wanted to look the part and show he was a Cougars’ supporter so he lined up at Pine Centre Mall to get the side of his face painted in the team colours just before the game.
The Cougars drew their two biggest crowds of the season last weekend and the two games attracted 12,000 people.
“We were talking about where people in PG go at night, because all the lights of the houses are turned off,” said Hossein. “Now I think that all of PG is coming to watch the game. It should be a headline: Prince George is silent, except for the Cougars.
“All the audience encouraged the team but also the Giants as well. It shows the hospitality of PG people. I wish my wife was with me tonight.”
The Cougars scored 14 seconds into the game and fired in three more goals to take a 4-1 lead into the first intermission.
The hockey club, with its community heroes focus, paid tribute to our soldiers and invited the city’s first responders and frontline workers, who set up booths in the concourse and mingled with the fans before the game and between periods. That gave Hossein and Mahdi a unique opportunity to learn more about the services they provide Prince George residents.
“I saw the society of Prince George was involved, not just in the game, but in the background of the game there were other things running, for example the firefighters, and people who had advice,” said Hossein. “This is something making people aware and I encourage other people in the society to go. We as immigrants can be involved in the society more.”
Hossein is an UNBC PhD engineering student downtown at UNBC’s Wood Innovation and Design Centre. Armed with a master’s degree, he switched from aerospace engineering to timber construction engineering and that led to his current job, where he’s focused on designing acoustic panels to deaden the sound of footsteps from people walking on a wood floor in a multi-storey building.
The day Hossein arrived at Vancouver Airport from Iran to come to live in Prince George, on Aug. 22, 2023, was the day thieves stealing copper from a vacant building that used to the Achillion Restaurant severed a natural gas line while stealing copper and caused an explosion that levelled the building, causing extensive damage to the adjacent wood lab that forced it to close temporarily.
Hossein likes his job as a researcher on the cutting edge of wood construction techniques. He says he wants to live in Prince George for good and has applied for permanent residency status.
Coming from a city where the coldest it gets in maybe -5 C, nothing could prepare the brothers for those few days in Prince George last winter when it dipped below -40 C or the week the chilly air hovered in the minus 30s.
While Mahdi not yet experienced a Canadian winter, he says bring it on. He loves the outdoors and would like to give skiing a try.
“Twenty years ago, when I was a teenager, we had cold winters in my country, not -40 C but more like -17 C, and we could play in the snow or ski or do something,” he said. “But because of the changing climate we have no snow anymore, maybe once a year. So when I come here and saw all the snow and all the people during that season working non-stop. All the roads were open and all the organizations were open to work and give services to the people. It was fantastic.
“You just have to be equipped with the right clothes and boots.”
Mahdi has a university degree in instrument control engineering and utilized his technical knowledge to work in Iran for more than10 years as a sales and marketing engineer, selling instrumentation equipment.
He arrived in the city in February and in mid-October he joined the Prince George Citizen team as an advertising sales representative. Once he’s established in his job he plans to begin the process of applying for a work permit for his wife Shirin, who has a job in Tehran in agricultural engineering.
“I hope my wife’s process (to get a visa) is short because I really miss her,” he said. “I have not seen her in something like nine months.”
The brothers are hoping their 26-year-old sister Zahra will soon come for a visit. In January she will be moving to Montreal from Italy to continue her PhD studies in pharmacology at McGill University
Mahdi plans to put down permanent roots in Prince George.
“I’ve decided to be here for the rest of my life,” he said. “I was really surprised when I came here – the city surprised me, because I grew up in Tehran with that kind of city and that kind population. What I see here, everything is beautiful. I’m really a fan of nature and when I searched (online) I saw there are 1,600 rivers and lakes around here, and it is my paradise.”
