Torn Paget keeps focus on title chase May 24, 2002

Ailing girlfriend will be in stands for today’s game

Chadd Cripe
The Idaho Statesman

Derek Paget still wonders.

Did he do the right thing? Is hockey important enough to lose time with his girlfriend, Wendi Lund, as she battles cancer? Will he regret it someday?

Yet, the Idaho Steelheads wing continues to impress with his play, his focus and his determination. He has five goals, 12 points and a plus-8 rating in the playoffs, all second- or third-best on the team.

“When I step out on the ice, my mind just goes blank,” Paget said. “Your body, your skills, everything just takes over.”

Paget and the Steelheads will need that kind of concentration tonight to keep their championship drive alive. The Fresno Falcons lead the best-of-seven Taylor Cup Championship Finals 3-2. They can finish off the Steelheads in Game 6 at 7 p.m. at the Bank of America Centre.

If Idaho wins, the teams will meet again in Game 7 on Saturday at the B of A.

“(Lund) wants me to win the Taylor Cup, and I want to win one,” Paget said. “I just hope that I´ve done the right thing.”

Paget and Lund´s bittersweet story has captivated a community that helped the team raise more than $25,000 for Lund´s alternative treatments in San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. Other teams around the WCHL have held fund-raisers, too.

Lund, 28, was diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer in December and given four to six months to live.

She has fought the disease with an unwavering spirit, and she´ll be in the stands tonight. Doctors are pleased with her progress, Paget reports.

“She has the best attitude of anyone I´ve ever known,” Paget said. “… I admire her.”

Paget, 23, would be the biggest surprise success on the team even without the emotional battle he has had to wage off the ice. His teammates and coach John Olver marvel at how well he has dealt with a situation Paget says he “never imagined that I´d have to go through by the time I was 50.”

“I don´t think anybody can imagine the type of emotions he must go through,” Olver said. “He´s a very tough-minded person, and that shows on the ice.”

Paget has seen Lund sparingly in the postseason. He made a brief trip to San Diego between the first and second rounds of the playoffs and she came to Boise for Games 1 and 2 of the finals two weeks ago.

But Paget made several trips to San Diego late in the regular season, skipping a few home games and a bunch of practices.

“On the life side of things, it was a good thing,” he said.