HOLIDAY HOCKEY: ‘C Cup’ an annual pucks tradition

PALMER — Nearly 15 years ago, a group of hockey-loving ladies put together a four-team women’s hockey tournament that would coincide with the annual Colony Christmas festivities, organized by the Palmer Chamber of Commerce.

The tournament, the Ladies C Cup Ice Hockey Classic, continued to grow. Now it’s bigger than it has ever been.

Ten teams. Seventeen games. Three days of women’s hockey at the MTA Events Center in Palmer.

“We’re thrilled,” Sammye Pokryfki, who has helped organize the tournament since the beginning, said after her Ink Spot team opened the weekend with a 5-1 win over the MTA squad.

After starting with four teams, the C Cup doubled to eight. This year, the tourney features 10 teams for the first time. The only thing preventing organizers from adding more teams, Pokryfki said, is ice time.

“We wouldn’t change it. We always say, it’s not easy to make 100 women happy. But we manage to do it,” Pokryfki said with a laugh. “This year it’s at 150.”

Teams are split into a pair of divisions, six intermediate and four advanced, and players hail from Homer to Healy.

Friday evening, Ink Spot won the first of five games on the schedule. The Homer Divas and Healy Coal Queens skated in the nightcap, with the puck dropping at 10:30 p.m.

The Saturday schedule included seven games, the first starting at 7:45 a.m. The Sunday schedule includes the first-place game for the intermediates at 11:45 a.m. and the advanced division title game at 1:15 p.m.

Pokryfki said there are about five women’s adult hockey tournaments currently in the state. C Cup organizers work to separate their tourney from the pack, Pokryfki said.

“I think ours is different. We do all of this stuff,” Pokryfki said as she motioned to a table full of C Cup gear. “We try really hard to have apparel. It’s Christmastime. People want to buy little stocking-stuffers. Sponsors give us a lot of stuff for the goodie bag. It’s a friend, fun tournament. Everyone loves it.”

There’s the annual cookie contest, which remains a hit. Overall, Pokryfki said the small town friendly feel and a love for hockey makes the tournament special.

Pairing the tournament with the Colony Christmas festivities is also a draw.

“A lot of the Anchorage teams just stay out here, make a weekend out of it,” Shelly Eller, a longtime teammate of Pokryfki said.

Pokryfki and Eller are among a core group of women have skated together for more than two decades. Pokryfki, Eller and their Ink Spot teammates play in the Anchorage Women’s Hockey League. They skate about twice a week during the season. In the past, they’d make the trip to Anchorage for each game. But this season, Pokryfki said they’ve been able to play on home ice. All have their reasons for returning every year.

“Camaraderie,” Eller said.

And staying active.

“We all want to have a healthy lifestyle now that we’re getting older. It helps to do it with friends,” Pokryfki said.

Playing for ‘The Hammer’

Pokryfki said organizers are dedicating the weekend to Dave Hanson.

Hanson — a longtime hockey supporter in the Valley known by most in the community as “The Hammer” — suffered a stroke Thursday. Hanson’s wife, Diane Firmani, is also part of the group that has skated with Pokryfki and Eller for decades and was among those who helped create the C Cup.

Hanson enjoyed a long career as a hockey referee and has been a fixture at local ice rinks for decades. Firmani said Hanson was in the intensive care unit at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center before he was transferred to Providence Hospital in Anchorage.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.