Hockey Hangout: Young skaters hit the ice for annual pond hockey tourney

BIG LAKE — The youngsters dropped the puck on the sixth annual Last Frontier Pond Hockey Classic on Friday afternoon. More than 100 teams will compete in the biggest pond hockey tournament in the state, which continues through Sunday, and Friday saw the 10,12,14, and 18U teams begin tournament play.

“It’s really fun to come out here and skate,” 12-year-old Josie Hull said.

While the party begins on Saturday night, the smaller skaters bring their talent to the ice first.

“I think everybody knows it’s just kind of messing around a little bit. You’re just here to have fun,” Sayer Sanders said.

Sanders competes with the 14U Valley Thunder, who give hockey players from around the Valley a chance to play. Sanders and his teammates enjoy watching their siblings play on other teams on one of the 13 outdoor rinks when not playing in one of their own games. The rinks have wooden boards that run a foot tall around the edge of the rink and wooden goals. While everyone enjoys the atmosphere, some prefer to let it fly.

“How small the boards are, they hurt when you fall over them,” 13-year-old Madison Jensen said.

Jensen plays 12U on a coed team.

“I always play with boys. I don’t like playing with girls. I get in fights way too often,” Jensen said. “It’s the one hockey season that I don’t get hit with pucks.”

The event, organized by the Scotty Gomez Foundation, isn’t all about hockey. Sled-dog rides were offered around Big Lake for free.

“That’s been real popular with the kids. I’m glad we did that,” event organizer Carlos Gomez said. “We’ll continue growing as long as we’ve got sponsorships. It’s going to be free to the public which I insist on it being free so that a family of four doesn’t get nickel and dimed to death and that’s what it’s about. So the more sponsors we get the bigger we’re going to get.”

Gomez has organized the end-of-season hockey tournament since its inception in Anchorage six years ago, and hopes to see the tournament grow to be featured as the last stop on the national pond hockey circuit. Families from around southcentral Alaska flock to Big Lake for the last ice time of 2019.

“There's no offsides, no icing, it’s basically pond hockey. It’s basically how we all grew up playing and it’s just a lot of fun,” John Lewis said as he watched his son play. “You’ve got to create space and time. It develops your stick handling because you don’t have the smooth ice. You’re dealing with the bumps and all the obstacles that you have with the outdoor ice not being as smooth.”

Jordan Alexa came to Big Lake for two reasons.

“Winning and scoring goals,” 10-year-old Alexa said.

As the youth begin the tournament with a dangle, snipe, celly, the adults will follow suit on Saturday. I Like Robots will play a free concert on Saturday night, with a fireworks show to follow. Far North Healing Hands offers a mobile massage clinic, and Shell-Bell’s is selling warm chocolate chip cookies. Saturday’s games will feature teams from the 49ers division of hockey players with a great deal of experience, the elite division, the women’s and co-ed division, and the open and novice classes. The open skating rinks that are not being used for games offer a space for players to pass the puck and skate around with their friends. Not every team brings a contingency of hockey players that are used to playing with one another.

“We’ve got the all-star group over here with the red helmets and we’ve got two wolves players. We’re all in the same league and we just came together to have some fun,” 13-year-old Florian Wade said.

Wade said the team had a good chance of winning their bracket if they continue to play well together.

“We just need to get pucks deep, go to work, chip it out just cherry pick. You know, defend, we’ve got to play defense,” 13-year-old Max Lightwood said. “Obviously offense is more important, but defense is kind of important. So we’ve got to play that a little bit, but just get pucks deep, get in ‘em, tire them out.”

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.