Pionk spends weekend in Grand Forks, but not by choice

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This article was published 28/12/2021 (1348 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Grand Forks is a popular getaway destination for many Winnipeggers but likely isn’t on Neal Pionk’s list of holiday-season hot spots.

Yet, there he was on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, smack-dab in the middle of the North Dakota city.

But the Jets defenceman wasn’t using the water slide at the hotel pool, dining on Mexican food at Paradiso or scouring Columbia Mall for that perfect last-minute gift.

He was desperately seeking a COVID-19 test.

“Terrible. Quite the eventful 96 hours,” Pionk said Tuesday. He missed practices Sunday and Monday in Winnipeg but finally rejoined the NHL squad after three days of headaches ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­― the travel kind, not the virus kind.

“It was a nightmare, but we made it here.”

After bidding farewell to his teammates Tuesday, Dec. 21, Pionk went home to Duluth, Minn., for some R&R and Christmas cheer with his family ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­― with every intention of being back on the ice in Winnipeg on Boxing Day.

He took a PCR test on Dec. 23 to ensure an anticipated negative result was still valid (within the mandatory 72-hour window) to cross the U.S.-Canada border on the 26th. But with no result back on the 25th, he and his fiancée Kiera packed up their truck and headed north.

“I left on Christmas Day and drove as close to the border as I possibly could to wait for the results. In the meantime, I was looking for an additional test to take in Grand Forks, where I was essentially stuck for two days,” he said. “Obviously, it’s pretty hard to schedule a COVID test on Christmas Day, so that wasn’t an option.

“The 26th came around and it happened to be a Sunday and we still couldn’t find a COVID test, whether it wasn’t an option, or all appointments were already booked up. Even went to emergency at the hospital in Grand Forks and they wouldn’t test us.”

Not exactly a Planes, Trains and Automobiles saga but frustrating, nonetheless.

“Finally, the 27th came around and we found a place that turned a PCR test around, they gave us the results back in about 30 minutes. Once those results came in, we were able to cross the border alongside driving in a blizzard to get to Winnipeg,” he said.

“I was refreshing my email every hour in Grand Forks, just hoping those results came in, but they literally came (Monday) night when I was already in Winnipeg.”

Naturally, his Jets brethren got in their jabs.

“Oh, yeah. ‘How was the vacation? Hope you had fun. Hope you went somewhere warm.’ Yeah, I got the whole works today, which was fair,” said Pionk, who got in a solo skate Monday shortly after returning to town.

“Those guys obviously didn’t see that.”

Before hitting the highway, Pionk relished a couple of days to escape the daily grind of the NHL.

“For me, it’s always a mental refresher more than physical for me, just to walk away and do something else, talk about something else, other than hockey,” he said. “And, of course, let your body physically rest and relax. But at the same time, once you get back it’s like that first day of school. You’re excited and you’re energized.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell