MONTREAL — One minute Vancouver native Doug Chalke was hamming it up for the media, one of thousands of Habs fans who thronged downtown Wednesday night to celebrate their team’s Game-7 win over Washington.

The next minute, the 19-year-old diabetic was tearing after the pickpocket who had grabbed his wallet and his life-saving insulin pump and disappeared into the crowds.

The McGill University student’s mother Thursday appealed to anyone who finds the pump, which resembles a pager with a catheter attached, to call the 1-800 number printed on the back of the Medtronic device.

“That machine keeps him alive,” Leslie Chalke said in a telephone interview from British Columbia. “As a parent, I find this very hard.”

Medtronic has said it would courier a loaner pump to Chalke, who has already had to go to the hospital to get an insulin boost.