The great outdoors

FAIRBANKS — “This is how to watch a hockey game,” Breanna Langberg said from the sidelines of Friday’s Junior A outdoor hockey game.

The temperature was a balmy 8 degrees above zero, and Langberg was wearing a white and orange bikini. She was one of the lucky few who spent Friday’s game in a hot tub near the side of the visitors’ bench.

“It is the best feeling in the world; it is amazing,” she said while watching the Fairbanks Ice Dogs entertain the Alaska Avalanche of Wasilla on the outdoor ice near the Big Dipper Ice Arena.

Friday’s game, billed as the first of its kind in North America, is the kickoff event of Hockey Week in Fairbanks and drew fans from across the state and nationwide attention from ESPNU and the film crew of the History Channel show “Ice Road Truckers.”

“We drove all the way up from Wasilla just for this,” Paul Friese said. His sons, Matt and Adam, play for the Avalanche, but he and his wife, Jenna, drove to Fairbanks just for the game. “Kids love pond hockey, and this is like high-level pond hockey,” he said.

While hockey undoubtedly grew from games of shinny played on ponds, lakes and rivers, this return to its roots still had the perks of any indoor game.

Gov. Sarah Palin dropped the ceremonial puck, and the crowd provided vocals for the national anthem. The beer garden was well-stocked, which brought its own set of difficulties.

“It was quite the challenge at first,” said Tina Henne, who worked the tap.

“We’re about out of everything,” said Darryl Carnley, who worked the outdoor snack stand, which served beer bratwursts, hot chocolate, cider and chili. “The grills are keeping us warm.”

Most of the spectators — who numbered than 1,800 according to Ice Dogs general manager Rob Proffitt — were bundled up in various forms of down, Carhartts and fur.

Those prepared with blankets and camp chairs to sit on soon abandoned them. The crowd at this hockey game mostly stood rather than plunk down on the tons of snow that created the three-tiered bleachers between two of the Big Dipper’s outdoor rinks.

“We’ve gotta come out and support them when they’re out there freezing,” said Joy Martin, who came with a crew of about 10, including kids, all decked out in Ice Dogs jerseys.

Her husband, who is deployed in Iraq, usually is a part of the Dog Pound, a rowdy crew of Ice Dogs fans who paint their faces and jeer the opposing team at every game.

She and three other wives whose husbands are deployed showed up with Michael Steffey, a Stryker soldier who doesn’t paint his face but is the leader of their fan pack. Steffey is the only soldier of the bunch who isn’t deployed at the moment.

“I’m too old to paint my face,” he joked, but displayed his Ice Dogs pride with a dog-shaped hat and an old-style blue, gold and red jersey. Although cold, the fan experience was up-close and personal, with none of the usual Plexiglas and just a chain-link fence separating the fans from the players.

“They can hear us for a change,” Steffey said before letting out a whoop for the Ice Dogs.

Proffitt said even though the event has been in the works for about a week and a half, 90 percent of the work came in the last 16 hours.

“I’ve had a great group of volunteers,” he said. “That’s what Fairbanks is all about.” Hockey Week, coinciding with USA Hockey’s Hockey Weekend Across America, hosts its largest event, the first Hockey Expo, today, filling the Big Dipper Arena with booths on the upper level and “celebrity” games on the ice.

When asked if the outdoor Junior game will become an annual Fairbanks event, Proffitt answered, “No question. I don’t think — I know — it’ll happen.”

“This is hockey. This is a hockey town.”

Contact the News-Miner sports department at 459-7581.