Today, the World Pond Hockey Championships begin in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick. I have a source on the the championships there.The World Pond Hockey Championships started in 2002 on a 20 rink pond in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick. In the first year of the competition, only 40 teams competed. There are now 120 teams competing this year with teams from all the Canadian provinces, 2 territories, 26 U.S stares and 11 countries in total! In the past 3 years there has been 1 team that has totally dominated. The team consists of former NHLer Mark Cornforth and NCAA players Mark Goble, Cooper Naylor, and Rob Atkinson.
The games are played with 15 minute halves, 4 on 4 playing and no goalies. The nets are low bars just higher than the puck. There are no big wristshots or slapshots for the sake of safety. To show what a puck can do, 1 person received a serious head injury from a high shot.
The reason they call it pond hockey is not just because the games are played outdoors, but because the games are played on really frozen ice! The temperatures in Plaster Rock are cold enough that each year the ice is in good enough condition to skate on.
Other than the actual tournament, there are going to be some interesting guests at the Championships. Prime Minister Stephen Harper will attend the tournament. The Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister Stephen Harper will attend the competition and will bring extra excitement. There will be other guests such as many NHLers either playing, watching, or just there to hang out. This will bring extra attention and excitement to this already amazing tournament.
The tournament schedule go's like this. On the first day, there will be one game in the evening under the lights. The second day will have 2 games for each teams and the same thing for the third day. If the team advances then they will play a series of single game elimination series. If you make it to the final your team may play 5 extra games! If you win all your games you win the Championship!
So if you want some excitement, fun and a great experience, than enter the World Pond Hockey Championship next year.
1 comment:
Young Gun;
To old in the tooth to do anything but go and watch and that doesn't seem like a bad idea.
You should be playing there yourself in a few years.
Congrats on some great insight to the tournament.
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