The Hockey Gods were not very kind to the North Bay Battalion last season and Mother Nature got into the act as well.
Poor weather conditions did not allow the North Bay Battalion to skate with youngsters on the winning rink as part of last season’s Home Depot Backyard Rink Contest.
That meant a very, very long wait for young hockey players Kaedyn, Briir, and Khov Long to get the opportunity to skate with North Bay Battalion players on their 2017 winning rink.
Well, that opportunity finally came to fruition on Tuesday night as Jesse Saban, Daniel Walker, Riley Bruce and newcomer Jake Henderson visited the rink for an outdoor game of shinny hockey on the 24 x 45 foot rink located in Astorville.
However, rain last week almost led to another postponement but rink superintendent Marc Long made sure it was ready.
“I came back from a hockey tournament Kingston on Sunday night and when I came home I almost cried,” Long said.
“The rink was a disaster and I put in about 15 or 20 hours the last couple of nights just trying to flood it and patch the holes and actually it worked out pretty good, with the help of the kids and our own billed Daniel Walker we got it going for tonight.”
For the Long’s it was well worth the wait.
“It’s great, the kids have been talking about this since last year when we had the bad weather last year and we could not have it and this year with a billet actually living with us and these guys coming out its great for the kids,” said Marc, a former OHLer himself.
“It’s a good experience and all having our mentors out there playing with us and playing a little shinny,” said 12-year-old Nolan Masson, who joined the Long trio for the game.
Briir Long summed it up best.
“It is fun but it takes a lot of work to do all this stuff but it is worth it,” he said.
You can check out more of the outdoor rink fun during our next episode of Troops Tracks.
The Battalion contest winners have already been chosen for 2018 and that will be announced by the OHL team later this week.
