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'Best game ever:' Glovertown boys play ball hockey with cops, photo goes viral

A photograph of Mounties playing ball hockey with children in Glovertown has been shared around the world, and the woman who took the picture says it should offset some of the "negativity" surrounding the RCMP these days.

Patricia Slaney-Holloway posted the photo on Facebook last week, after coming home to find two police officers in her driveway. One was playing ball hockey with her son, Cody, and his friends. The other was on the sidelines.

"They've done it a couple of times before," said Slaney-Holloway. "One of the police officers actually used to carry his ball hockey stick in the back of his car."

Cody, 11, said the police officer played on his team. He told his mom after that it "was the best game of hockey ever."

Slaney-Holloway said she decided to send the photo to CBC Newfoundland and Labrador after getting thousands of positive comments on her own Facebook page.

"I think there are over 3,500 comments there now," she told CBC St. John's Morning Show host Anthony Germain on Monday. "And I might have read five negative ones. It was really, really good."

As of Monday afternoon, nearly 65,000 people on CBC's Facebook page liked the photograph. It had been shared more than 23,000 times, and had reached almost four million timelines.

Slaney-Holloway said most people were pleased to see the RCMP officers spending time with the children, who were 11 to 14 years old. She said they stayed for about 15 minutes.