Temiskaming Shores Pond Hockey event still a go

Paul Gordon, Gerry Culhane and Wayne Aresenault meet at the site of the second annual Northern Ontario Pond Hockey Championships January 12-14, 2007. Photo submitted.

TEMISKAMING SHORES – Given the current and prospective weather conditions, the decision to move the Northern Ontario Pond Hockey Championships to more stable ground seems to be the right decision. In its second year, the event will be held on the weekend of January 12-14, 2007 on the baseball fields of Farr Park in Haileybury.

The championships will feature men’s, women’s and over 35 divisions of players that want to play hockey the way it started – outside.

With the ability of using the lights of the baseball field, the games will begin on Friday evening, and will run through until the championship round on Sunday. With the excitement of January 13th, 2007 being CBC’s Hockey Day in Canada, tournament co-chair Gerry Culhane is really looking forward to celebrating Hockey Day with many of Northern Ontario’s finest pond hockey players.

“We already have teams registered which have players that are coming home to the north to celebrate ‘Hockey Day’ with their friends and families on the ice", Culhane said.

Members of the organizing committee are constantly monitoring the site of the event, and are quite impressed with the way that the ice is holding up despite the lack of winter weather. “We were able to get a good ice base before the mild weather hit, and now with these temperatures, the ice surface is only getting more level each day," Culhane said.

“We will have even better conditions this year since we won’t have to worry about the thickness of the ice over Lake Timiskaming being able to hold all of the equipment needed to groom the surface."

Teams will consist of up to five players with only four playing at one time. Basic rules will be that there are no goalies, the nets are regulation width, but only ten inches high which is consistent with the tournaments held across Canada. Games will be two, fifteen minute running time periods with each team guaranteed to play a minimum of three games.

For more information, or to register, please contact Gerry Culhane at (705) 672-3695.