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Siblings Karisma, 12, and Phillip Gallardo, 11, of Covington, Ky., were thrilled to attend a local hockey game with almost all their family members Saturday night.

The children's dad, Army. Sgt. First Class Phillip Gallardo, had been honorably serving in Afghanistan. Little did the kids know, their father would be at that hockey game too.

Karisma and Phillip were called down to center ice during the Cincinnati Cyclones game by a member of the team's marketing department. The kids thought they had been randomly selected out of the crowd to drop the ceremonial puck at the start of the game.

However, the real reason they were called down to the ice was so they could see their soldier dad, whom they hadn't seen in over a year.

"It was outstanding," said Gallardo, who had just got home from a roughly one year deployment in Afghanistan. "They were very excited."

Watch the touching video via ABC's World News Now:

(H/T: ABC News Blog)