St. Joseph's High School hockey team hadn't lost a game all season, but Sunday, they faced their toughest opponent yet and it was all for a good cause.

St. Joseph’s High School played in a sled hockey game against the Turnstone Flyers – a team out of Fort Wayne whose members all have physical disabilities.

For St. Joe players, this was their first time playing hockey on a sled, with feet taped together in front and shorter hockey sticks used to propel the sled around the ice. For the Turnstone players, sled hockey is what they play and practice quite often.

The event was organized by St. Joe's coach to memorialize Adam Milani, a 1984 St. Joe grad who was paralyzed his senior year when he got checked in a hockey game.

The event is a fundraiser for the Turnstone team, and it was an eye opening experience for St. Joe players.

“Hopefully after this event today it will give my kids a much better appreciation for the gift that they’ve been given. They come to the rink two, three times a week, put on their skates, go out and play hockey. This will give them a much greater appreciation for people that have a disability and what they can do,” said Chris Kleva, the St. Joseph’s hockey coach.

“We’re just everyday people and there’s nothing special or extraordinary about us. We’re just going about our days, making a good living, having fun, traveling, playing sports. We’re their next-door neighbors. We’re at the shopping mart, we’re pumping our own gas. We’re doing the same things that they’re doing,” said Kevin Hughes, a Turnstone player.

St. Joe got shut out, losing six to zero in their first defeat of the season.

This is the first time the sled hockey game was held and they hope to make it an annual event.

The money raised from the event will go to ice time for the Turnstone team and also to help them buy sleds, which cost hundreds of dollars each.