All in the Family

There wasn’t much hockey talk at the Althaus dinner table leading up to the Tech/Apollo hockey game on Tuesday.  The fact that parents Jeff and Karen were both going to be at the National Hockey Center for the game was a given.  After all the starting goalies, yes plural, are their sons.  Austin, the older of the two, plays for Tech.  Nick, two years younger, is a freshman at Apollo.

Karen and Jeff watched with a bit of nervousness as the two shared the ice for the second time this year.  Tech won the first time the two played in December, as was the case on Tuesday night.  This night, however was about the two sons of Karen and Jeff…two brothers between the pipes on and off the ice.

“It’s fun working with both of them in the off season,” says the proud dad and former Cathedral goaltender, “Austin (the older brother) has always tried to help Nick, and that is fun to watch.”

While Mom Karen likes watching both play goaltender, she admits it was a little nervous watching both on the ice as their perspective teams played took to the ice.

“I just want them both to play well and give their teams a chance to win,” said Karen, as she watched with family including their youngest Noah.

As the game ended, players from Tech and Apollo, teammates and opponents alike, congratulated Nick and Austin for their efforts in net.  And both Jeff and Karen knew their sons have worked hard to get where they are tonight…across the ice from each other in net.