Hockey player’s cold shoulder melts into love

‌

Provided photo

Alan Mazur ’10 and Lindsay Littman Mazur ’09 met playing hockey at RIT. They got married in July.

When Lindsay Littman Mazur ’09 (biomedical sciences) first met Alan Mazur ’10 (packaging science), she didn’t like him very much.

It was October 2007 and the women’s and men’s hockey teams were having a Halloween party in downtown Rochester.

“My teammate and I were making fun of him for playing the guitar,” said Lindsay, who had transferred to RIT from SUNY Plattsburgh that fall to play hockey and major in biomedical sciences. “It was awful.”

But the next quarter Alan and Lindsay found themselves in the same physics class and they hung out occasionally to study. When it came time to drive home for the summer, Lindsay asked fellow Canadian Alan if he wanted to accompany her on the ride. “We spent seven days 24/7 together and we didn’t kill each other,” Lindsay said about the drive to Alberta.

By the time they repeated the ride back to school at the end of the summer, they had decided to date seriously. They were married last July.

“We went a long way to meet each other,” Alan said.

A relationship between two hockey players has its challenges. For starters, it was difficult to find time to date on the weekends because the women played Saturday afternoons and the men played Saturday evenings. Their date nights turned into weeknight study sessions for another physics class they had together.

Then there was the added pressure that they both played defense. “She didn’t like it when I gave her advice,” Alan said.

“We are different types of players,” Lindsay chimed in. “Alan is very offensive and gets a lot of points and I’m a stay-at-home D, penalty-kill specialist.”

They also had the challenge of being apart after leaving RIT. Lindsay attended graduate school at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth while Alan played professional hockey with the Bloomington Prairie Thunder in Illinois, the Dundee Stars in Scotland and the Ontario Reign in California.

Today, RIT is still a big part of their lives. A dozen RIT alumni attended their wedding on July 20 and they made sure RIT was featured in a skit during the reception.

Hockey also continues to play a role in their relationship. Lindsay, a medical lab assistant for Alberta Health Services who hopes to attend medical school, plays on a senior women’s league in Peace River, Alberta, where they live.

Alan, an operating team technician for Shell Canada, is her coach.

“Now I have to listen to what he has to say,” Lindsay said about hockey. But she doesn’t have to listen to him play the guitar. “I haven’t seen him try again. He can’t actually play—not even a single note.”