If you’ve been meaning all season to get around to going to a Seattle Thunderbirds game, you’re running out of time: there’s just a few games left in the regular season. Playoffs are always fun and dramatic, but, really, do you want to be the sort of sports fan who only shows up for the playoffs? Even if you haven’t given a thought to going to a game, you still might want to get yourself a ticket to this Saturday’s game, anyway, as it is time once again for the annual hockey challenge.

The Hockey Challenge is an an event in which local sponsors raise funds to form teams to compete against each other on the ice with all the money raised by the teams going to the Seattle Ronald McDonald House, a favored charity of the Tbirds. (Besides the Hockey Challenge, every year the young men on the team visit the kids at the Ronald McDonald House and everyone has a good time.) After a series of games by these once-a-year amateur teams (Windows v. Exchange, Visual Studio Women v. Exchange Women, Microsoft IT v. Mobile Services and Windows Live v. SQL Server), the Seattle Thunderbirds take on their likely match-up for the first round of playoffs, the Kelowna Rockets at 6:05 pm.

After the Tbirds/Rockets game comes one more game to cap off the night: the Hockey Challenge 2008 Celebrity All-Star Game. Former Tbirds scheduled to appear include Jamie Huscroft, Pat Smith, Al Kinisky, Regan Mueller, Blake Knox, Troy Hyatt and Lloyd Shaw. Celebrities include Tom Arnold (Pride, True Lies), Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville), Jason Thompson (General Hospital), Cameron Bancroft (24: Day 4, Hockeyville on CBC), Brian Basset (cartoonist of “Adam @ Home” and “Red and Rover”), Kelly Tysland (formerly Kelly Stephens 2006 U.S. Women’s Olympic hockey bronze medalist), Bill Wixey (KCPQ news anchor), Brad Goode (KING news anchor), Ian Furness (KJR 950 AM Host) and Steve The Producer (KISW 99.9 FM Host).