Pond hockey's back and looking worldwide
By Andrew Zwicker
Hockey is a game with fun and friendly rivalries at its core. Strip away the million dollar contracts, 20,000 seat arenas, overpriced hotdogs and heck even the goalies and what you’re left with is pure and simple fun, the way it was originally intended. Bringing the Western Regional Qualifier of the Canadian Pond Hockey Championships back to Rossland again this weekend, John Reed of Adventure Architects gets that. Him and a team of volunteers, sponsors and a local ice making savant, fresh off the event’s successful expansion into Prince George are looking to continue to build on the popular event and go even bigger.
This year marks the third season the Emcon lot has played host to hockey players and fans from around the province and beyond and the first year that Prince George has gotten in on the fun. From January 14th to the 16th West Lake Provincial Park, a twenty minute drive west of Prince George played host to 32 teams. The Chilly arctic blast of minus 20 or better weather may have kept some fans away but didn’t stop the action as the expansion event was deemed a success.
That successful expansion to include Prince George is all part of a larger strategy to develop a provincial pond hockey series. With hopes of announcing a third venue in the Spring the next plan in the works is to round out what will be an annual three stop series and provincial championship.
Reed is currently working on the third location, likely to be in the East Kootenay region. Once that stop of the series is nailed down, the plan is to host three pond hockey tournaments each winter and then develop the provincial series likely for 2012 which will rotate each year around the three locations.
The Rossland event was first born out of relationship with the Canadian Pond Hockey Championships in Deerhurst Ontario and acted as it still does as the Western Regional qualifier. The winning teams at the Rossland event win free entry into the National Championship. The costs of travelling out east however proved prohibitive and didn’t provide the incentive to come out as was first hoped. Recognizing that and working to improve it Reed set out to build a BC tour that could make playing in the other events a closer reality for many.
“What we found in speaking with our players was that winning entry into the national tournament while albeit cool, super fun and competitive, the prize wasn’t resonating. If a team of six is going to fly out to Ontario to compete they are incurring big costs to do that,” commented Reed. “We thought it might be more beneficial to develop a series that was possible to easily get from one area to the other. The three areas will be geographically distinct enough so that they draw from different areas but geographically close enough so that teams from one tournament can travel within a day or day and a half to play in the next location.”
If all goes according to plan the BC tour may just be the next step towards bigger international aspirations. Reed is already starting to lay the groundwork for what could become an international competition. Dreams of a seven country international competitive pond hockey event in which a different country hosts the championships each year may not be that far off as the momentum continues to build behind the sport.
“It’s super cool. It’s a great fit with Canada. It’s a logical fit. It’s what everyone associates with Canada and there are a lot of countries out there that play hockey so it’s a good chance for cultural integration and building relationships internationally, not to mention super fun. There’s still some big pieces in play to make that happen though so it’s probably two or three years away,” added Reed.
This year’s event which already has better than 20 teams from as far as Ontario and Seattle signed up has made a few tweaks of its own for this year and is setting up to be three days of pure, simple, hockey fun. Mayor Boggs of Trail and Mayor Granstrom of Rossland will kick things off with a ceremonial puck drop Friday evening as play gets under way. The party will then heat up Saturday night as live music hits the pond. Jim Fike and The Best Of will be keeping party goes warm and hopping as they take in the spectacle. Playoff excitement will dominate the day on Sunday with a tweak to the event’s format. Rather than one final for each division, a semi-final round is being added to the tournament. Each team will play four games. Following that the top team in each division gets a bye directly into the finals while the second and third place teams battle it out for a chance to play in the final.
When they hit the ice this weekend, that ice will be ready for them as Raymond Von Diebeisch has put his years of ice-making expertise into developing what he’s calling “The best ice we’ve had yet,” for the event. He’s got enough thickness down now that the potentially warm weather this week shouldn’t affect the event. That weather and a forecast calling for slightly below zero temperatures on the weekend should provide a welcome change compared to the Prince George event.
“It’ll be nice! As opposed to minus 22 we had on the ice in Prince George with rock hard ice. The Rossland ice will be a little more forgiving and flexible for the Rossland event. It should be around minus one to minus four which should be perfect.”
With an exceptionally high level of play and competition over the first two years, Reed is welcoming all to come out and watch what has been and promises yet again to be a fun event. Look closely while you’re there as well as there may just be a few ex-NHLers scratching their competitive hockey itch. While final rosters are not yet submitted there is already a hotly anticipated rivalry re-match setting up from the event’s first year finals. The Benson Oilers will be looking for redemption against the Gilnockie Ruttin’ Bucks who sport a few NHL alumni on their team following their 36-29 loss in the inaugural event.
Of course the big winners of the event are the supporting Rossland businesses as the event brings hundreds of folks from around the region and out of town to the Golden City for three days of fast paced, open air hockey action. Taking place in conjunction with the Rossland Winter Carnival again this year it’s sure to be one of the busiest weeks of the year and loaded with entertainment of the frozen variety. Even if you aren’t playing in the event or spectating, skaters in Rossland will once again benefit as the two rinks will be kept open to the public following the event for some mid-town skating fun.
“There’s going to be some phenomenal hockey,” concluded Reed. “It’s going to be a ton of fun and after the games are done we have two really nice rinks that will be partially maintained for people to skate on. It’s really going to be a great event once again for the City and the players.”