Friday, March 18, 2005 | By Philip Croucher, Halifax Daily News

Its 9-9. Next goal wins. Halifax Mooseheads forward Daniel Sparre has been in this situation before, and knows the pressure is on.

Suddenly, a shot flies, and Sparre watches the puck go into his net. Game over.

"I beat him at air hockey. I won," says a jubilant Christopher Coady of Halifax. "Na na-na na na na."

Sparre, the Mooseheads' leading scorer, tries to shake off the loss.

"It's not fair. He's got the table at home," Sparre proclaims. "He gets to practice."

Coady, who is eight, walks around proudly after the win, which comes a day after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (a form of bone cancer), and just hours before he has surgery, to put a feeding tube into his body, and a port-a-cath.

Coady was one of about 20 patients at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax to spend time with Sparre yesterday, along with four other Mooseheads Jason Churchill, Jean-Francois Brault, Pierre-Olivier Beaulieu and Alexandre Picard.

The Mooseheads visit patients at the IWK once a month during the season.

"This helps a lot," says Coady's mother, Dana. "He was so excited to see them. It takes his mind off the fact that hes going into surgery."

The Mooseheads have a blast with the kids, playing everything from pool to Jenga to Hot Shot Basketball.

The players also have their pictures taken, and sign countless autographs on everything from hats to calendars, to Coady's hockey stick, which he proudly brings into the sixth-floor games lounge.

"It means a lot to me," Churchill says. "It just feels good to come in and help them out."

The visit ends with a battle of Jenga, between Churchill, Sparre and Coady, who also defeats Picard in a game of pool.

In the Jenga matchup, Sparre and Churchill think they've left nothing for Coady, but the youngster proves them wrong with a delicate move to take a block off an end.

Churchill follows that up with a superb move of his own, leaving Sparre no play at all except to be the one who drops the blocks.

"Churchill set me up for defeat there," Sparre says. "He did a good job, and the little guy is pretty smooth under pressure."