Aside from the obvious goal that brothers Brent and Brian Grieve shared of winning an Allan Cup national championship when they left for British Columbia on Easter Sunday, two other generations of the family brought that plus a few other good reasons for making the trip.

Brent's son, Ben, has the most amusing one.

"I thought it would be really good to go on this trip, plus I'm happy that I'm taking off school," quipped the nine-year-old.

With Brent and Brian busy focusing on the task at hand with the Whitby Dunlops, their father, Jim, served as Ben's primary chaperone.

But Ben had plenty of opportunity to mingle with the players, learning perhaps more than mom back home would have liked, but mostly bonding in a positive way with the players, especially the younger ones.

"Ben's absolutely got a smile ear to ear watching the whole thing," said Brent, shortly after scoring a hat trick in a 9-5 win over the Trail Smoke Eaters. "And, it's helped him. He's just starting to really have some fun with hockey. I'm excited for him."

In fact, both Brent, 37, and Brian, 34, were just as excited to compete at the tournament for their guests as for themselves.

The two have won plenty of important games in their careers, most notably for fans in these parts a Memorial Cup championship with the Oshawa Generals in 1990.

So, vying for the Allan Cup was just icing on the cake.

"Hockey was always a huge part of our lives," said Brent, who spent time in the NHL with Edmonton, Chicago and Los Angeles. "It was always something that we did as a family and it's never changed... I'm not playing for anything but this: my family, my brother, my son and the guys in the room."

Not the skater he once was thanks in large part to a knee injury suffered in his heyday, Brent still doesn't miss too many opportunities near the net.

Brian, meantime, takes care of the other end of the ice and chips in offensively when needed from the blue-line. Although his two daughters are too young for such a trip, he was equally pleased with the family's representation.

"It means a great deal," said Brian, who played in B.C. despite having a separated shoulder. "It comes from my father. He's been driving us around to different games and supporting us ever since I can remember."

Like many players on the team, Brent and Brian juggle business and family responsibilities along with their hockey schedule. Brent, a Courtice resident, is in sports management, while Brian, now living in Whitby, is a supervisor at General Motors.

So, when they made the commitment to head west, Jim, a 62-year-old retiree from Oshawa, didn't think twice about joining them.

"I've been following the boys ever since they got into hockey at the age of five and six, so I don't miss any of the trips," he said while in Powell River. "I've been to Czechoslovakia as well, so this is just a short trip."