Negative 9 and Smiling – 2019 North American Pond Hockey Championships

I have been cold before; snow camping in Sequoia National Park, hiking Mount Shasta in a storm or even playing outdoor hockey as a kid at my home town rink in Mount Shasta. But I have never been as cold as I was when I stepped onto the frozen lake for our first pond hockey game this past January.

It was late January in Minneapolis, Minnesota, about 8:27am. I had sweats on under my shin-guards, a hoodie under my jersey, and hand warmers stuffed into my gloves and skates to keep my digits thawed. I looked up at the giant thermometer the tournament organizers had put up. It said -9*. This was definitely the coldest temperature I had ever seen and we were outside about to play hockey!

It was hard to breath with the air this cold and we had not even started skating yet. Yet, I was all smiles. It was so exciting to be back on the ice after a year-long hiatus from the game. Being around a bunch of other excited and crazy hockey players on a frozen lake about to play my favorite sport with a few of my best buddies. It does not get much better than that.

We were a handful of kids traveling from California who had been playing hockey together for a few years in our local rec league.  We were a bit out of our element, in more ways than one, with this outdoor pond hockey tournament. The cold temperatures were just one new factor to our games that weekend.

I had never played “official” pond hockey before. It is played 4 on 4 with no goalies, with a 5 ½ inch tall goal with two 12-inch openings on each side.

The rink is obviously on a frozen pond, but instead of normal boards, there are 16-inch high boards surrounding the playing surface. This meant there were a few lost pucks as we adjusted to the short boards and lower shooting target.

The hockey gear we wore was different than what I was used to also. For pond hockey, we only wore shin guards, elbow pads and gloves. More like roller hockey. No one wore shields or masks, which seemed sketchy, but with the temps it made sense. I am sure my cage would have frozen shut!

Our team was made up of 6 players. 1 who grew up playing a bit of pond hockey. 4 who had played in the tournament last year. And me, who grew up playing street hockey, roller hockey and formal ice hockey, but never this version of the sport. We had one of the smallest team we saw out there that weekend. Most teams had 8-10 players. But we figured our excitement and gusto would carry us through the tournament even with a thin bench.

The game play was fast and relatively high scoring, at least for our opponents. We struggled in the beginning to find our groove and adjust our game play to the pond hockey style. It was quite a challenge for us to get the puck in those little slots.

We played four games over two days, none as cold as that first morning game. We lost two close games, game 1 and 4, by just a couple goals. But we were absolutely demolished in the two middle games, to the tune of 30-2 and 21-5 (we saw that some other teams were losing by even more – we saw one score of 42-0!). We were clearly in the wrong division - lessons learned.

Even though we got smashed in the games, our team had a blast just being out there with a bunch of other like-minded hockey players; drinking beer, swapping stories and trying to stay warm! We ended the weekend still smiling, with all our teeth and all our fingers still intact.

It was a great weekend spent with great friends, playing hockey and exploring Minneapolis. Our dismal performance did not discourage our spirits as a week after returning home we had already signed up for another outdoor pond hockey tournament for the winter of 2020. This time a little closer to home to in Colorado. At least next year I will be prepared for the freezing temps, quantity of beer drinking and new style of play that awaits me.

Key gear that make the cold bearable

• • Glove liners - keeps hands warm but did not affect stick-handling feel.
    • I also saw some people just wearing medical gloves. They said these kept their hands warm too. But they are single use plastic and I'd think they would feel weird in your hockey gloves.
  • Balaclava - thermal head and face cover - my face would have frozen without it!

• Hand-warmers - lots of them, stick them in your gloves and skates before you get ready.
• Thin thermal pants - got to keep your legs warm and wick the moisture or it can freeze!
• Don't forget my favorite socks!