from Doyle Woody of Alaska Dispatch News,

Everything about this feels right — this time, this place, these people.

Scott Gomez sits on the patio behind his home, the same modest, three-bedroom, one-bath ranch house he grew up in, sipping coffee, enjoying the afternoon sun, reminiscing. He's always felt protected here in Airport Heights. So many childhood games played in this backyard at 1812 Toklat Street, or on the baseball field and on the rink, which now bears his name, just down the street at Tikishla Park. The neighbors haven't changed much — just the other day Andy Parent, from across the street, was back in town visiting. Andy used to let Scott, a decade younger, hang out with him and his high school buddies. So he and Scott caught up over coffee one morning.

Through the side gate comes Scott's younger sister, Natalie, home from a day teaching English at West High. She lives next door. She's just checking in. Scott's childhood friend and teammate, Ben Brady, is hanging out. Soon, Scott's mother, Dalia, arrives, all smiles and hugs and hospitality — need something to drink or eat? Onto the patio trudges Bacon, the Gomez family bulldog, to cadge some pets from a stranger.

"What I accomplished started here,'' Gomez says. "I got where I am because of this neighborhood. This is Airport Heights. This is home.

"I'd never think of living anywhere else. To leave, I'd almost feel I'd be betraying Eastside. This is home base.''

He's come full circle. This is where the most illustrious hockey career in Alaska started, and this is where it ends.

Scott Gomez is done, retired at 36.

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