A tale of two Joshes: Australian hockey fans fly to Vancouver to cheer for rival teams

Two friends — both named Josh — flew in all the way from Australia to watch Thursday night’s playoff game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers, they told CityNews.

While they both agree Thursday’s game is a big one, they aren’t in agreement over who should win: one of the Joshes is an Oilers fan and the other is a Canucks fan.

Josh and Josh jumped on the opportunity to come to a game as soon as the matchup was set.

“I … immediately booked tickets for the game, [found] out there’s a game five then booked flights,” Josh said.

“That was it. That was the plan.”

Canucks fan Josh described his favorite moment of the series so far.

“Never saying never, [the team came] from behind in Game 1 and just …never letting up when it’s tough and just pushing through and getting the win at the end, absolutely,” he said.

Oilers fan Josh says watching his team’s powerplay has been electric. He says he learned to love the sport from the other Josh.

“I picked up ice hockey from [Canucks fan Josh] down in Australia when we started working together and then I couldn’t choose Canucks… can’t go with the same team,” he said.

“So I decided to go with Oilers.”

The pair will also be in Edmonton for Game 6 on Saturday.

With files from Cole Schisler.