Erek Romano was in need of a feel-good experience after his Manchester, N.H., home went up in flames on Super Bowl Sunday in February 2017. So, five days after the fire displaced the Romanos and forced them into a hotel, Derek found that feel-good experience in the form of a pond hockey tournament.
Romano and a group of childhood friends from Manchester played in the Pond Hockey Classic Lake Champlain in Vermont. The team — The Drunk Uncles — was one of 124 teams to compete.
"I’m not sure how much my wife loved me that weekend, but she knew with everything that happened, I needed it," Romano said. "What am I going to do? Sit around in a hotel? She knows how much I love hockey and miss my friends."
Pond hockey seems to generate feelings similar to those of Romano for so many New Englanders who grew up skating wherever they could find ice. There is a certain freedom in playing outdoor hockey — without the benefit of boards or boundaries. The joy in pond hockey appears to come from the lack of structure; games can be played with as few as two people and as many as can fit on the pond.
As is the case so often in New England winters, pond hockey players are at the mercy of the elements. Starting a game might require a share of maintenance beforehand, with players shoveling snow and conditioning the ice so that the surface is playable. Significant time might be spent searching for pucks in snowbanks or blocking off sections of the ice that are cracked or laden with air bubbles.
But the perfect pond hockey day? Well, that makes all of the high-maintenance days worth it.
"It’s the open ice, breathing the fresh air," Romano said. "It reminds me of my childhood. I remember playing in the finals last year — one week after the fire happened. There was supposed to be a snowstorm coming, and sure enough, it started snowing. What can you do? You’re outside, so you have to play in all conditions. That’s part of New England winters."
Madison, N.H., resident Erin Ohlenbusch, 13, grew up playing hockey on Pea Porridge Pond in the White Mountains. Every New Year’s Eve, her parents host Pond-A-Palooza — a pond hockey game for family, friends and neighbors. Ohlenbusch also plays competitive indoor hockey with the Spartans Elite out of Exeter, N.H., but she prefers a good day on the pond over any day in a rink.
"There’s more of a thrill to it," Ohlenbusch said. "There’s the fresh mountain air. You can push people into snowbanks. The pond we play on is smaller than a rink, so it’s a tighter playing area. You have to learn to incorporate that style of play into your game."
Under the right conditions — like a 20-degree day with clear skies — ponds can actually offer faster skating surfaces than rinks.
"There are days when it’s almost black ice on certain parts of the pond," Ohlenbusch said. "Those are the best days, when it’s smoother than an actual rink."
‘I think of having fun with friends’
As much as ice and weather conditions are a part of pond hockey, there seems to be a level of camaraderie between players that surpasses that of indoor hockey. Andover, Mass., resident Lou Shipley has played in the Pond Hockey Classic New England on Lake Winnipesaukee in Meredith, N.H., since the tournament’s inception in 2010. That year’s tournament included 77 teams, with 40 more on the waiting list. The 2017 tournament had 275 teams.
"When I think of pond hockey, I think of having fun with friends and being outdoors on a great winter day," Shipley said. "The best ice is pristine — better than any internal ice. It’s really a special thing; it’s like skating on glass. But even when Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, hockey players tend to like beer."
Beer seems to be the secondary draw for hockey players at the adult pond hockey tournaments. Shipley remembers that during Pond Hockey Classic New England’s inaugural year, the town of Meredith sold out of beer in bars and liquor stores.
Pond Hockey Classic commissioner Scott Crowder (Nashua, N.H.) has ensured that players are never lacking for beer as the tournament has grown in recent years. The tournament now has sponsors like Labatt Blue as well as a beer garden.
‘We want to stay true to the game’
The growth of the Pond Hockey Classic also has caused some pond hockey traditionalists to question whether the Pond Hockey Classic can still, in fact, be considered pond hockey. Last year, Crowder’s crew designed 26 rinks on Lake Winnipesaukee for the New England Classic and 12 in Malletts Bay for the Lake Champlain Classic. That means the tournaments now have plastic boards separating each game.
"A traditionalist might say it’s not pond hockey," Crowder said. "We’re offering a pond hockey tournament. When you’re outside playing with buddies, you might clear the pond for two-and-a-half or three hours to play for a half-hour. There’s a lot of labor. We’re not asking them to pick up shovels or maintain ice. We want to stay true to the game they grew up playing outdoors while offering a turn-key experience."
As the son of a college hockey coach, Crowder grew up playing pond hockey before going off to UMass-Amherst to study sports management. Now the commissioner of three pond hockey tournaments (Montana, New England, Lake Champlain), he has found a generational split when it comes to pond hockey interest.
"There’s an older base that played more outdoor than indoor, and they’re nostalgic about bringing back what they did as kids," Crowder said. "The younger generation grew up playing in indoor rinks at camps and showcases. This is more novel for them. It’s something they’ve heard about and they’re eager to try it."
St. Lawrence University defenseman Ben Finkelstein (South Burlington, Vt.) grew up about 10 minutes from Lake Champlain. Some of his best childhood memories came on the outdoor ice.
"The experience is the best feeling in the world — playing the game you love outside," Finkelstein said. "The sheet is way bigger. It’s that hard, crisp feeling of natural ice under your skates. Once in a while, an odd inner bubble will trip you up, so you have to look out for those. But those outdoor NHL games are the mostwatched games for a reason. Everyone can relate to playing hockey outside."
‘A way to bring back our youth’
Chris Brown, commissioner of the Black Ice Pond Hockey Championship in Concord, N.H., has made more of an effort in recent years to include a younger generation of players in his tournament, which takes place in White Park, right in the center of one of the most historic hockey towns in the country.
Brown has added Learn-to-Skate sessions and Mite practices for Concord Youth Hockey players as well as a game between the New Hampshire Avalanche Junior Monarchs and the Concord Capitals.
"Ten years from now, those are the people who will be playing in our Open division," Brown said. "We’ve never really had a problem drawing interest for adult teams. I looked at the youth part with a goal for families to bring their kids and create a pond hockey atmosphere."
Pond hockey aspirations in New England occasionally result in boot hockey instead. Two years ago, the Black Ice Pond Championship was played under the backdrop of 55-degree weather in the end of January.
"We beat the ice up so bad on Friday, we played boot hockey on Saturday," Brown said. "On Sunday, we had to rent ice at a local hockey rink. It’s pond hockey in New England. You have to roll with Mother Nature.
"What people love about pond hockey is it’s where they learned to play. Maybe the first time they skated was on this pond or that outdoor rink. That’s where you have memories, but on the other hand, if you grew up playing pond hockey, you probably made the natural progression to boot or street hockey because the weather didn’t always cooperate."
A year of bad hockey weather doesn’t appear to have affected the popularity of the Black Ice Pond Hockey Championship. The tournament started in 2011 with 35 teams. Last January, the tournament drew more than 100 teams. Last year, Brown’s crew constructed nine temporary rinks in White Park for the tournament.
"When all of the pond hockey tournaments started popping up, I thought, ‘We can do something like this in town.’" Brown said. "Now we have a giant scoreboard, an announcer, sponsors, light towers and nine hockey rinks. It’s very structured."
It’s the dichotomy of organizing a pond hockey tournament. Pond hockey is so popular that it seems that just about every New England tournament grows so fast that it eventually sacrifices some of the charm and freedom that is the essence of pond hockey.
For a traditionalist, pond hockey is at its core not "very structured." It’s a game played without boards and lights. In fact, the glare of the sun on the ice can be a player’s toughest opponent. The players referee themselves, and the only set-instone rules are often that every player needs to bring a shovel, a water bottle and be home by sundown.
Through her experience playing in her parents’ New Year’s Eve Pond-APalooza, Ohlenbusch has recognized that no two pond hockey experiences are alike.
"If we get a ton of snow the night before, part of pond hockey is prepping by shoveling," Ohlenbusch said. "If you plow out a space that is too bumpy, you have to move to a different part of the ice. It’s a really good way to get to know your teammates better. Even if the pond hockey doesn’t work out, we might go tubing or skiing. If someone doesn’t know how to ski, we can learn to do that together."
On the other end of the go-with-the-flow spectrum regarding pond hockey structure is Tony Barnea, who serves as the general manager of The Drunk Uncles in the New England Pond Hockey Classic. According to Barnea, he "handles all of the stuff no one else wants to handle," which doesn’t include playing in the tournament. Barnea is there for the pond hockey experience — not so much the hockey.
"I see pond hockey as a way to bring back our youth," Barnea said. "We might see each other twice a year, but we always pick up right where we left off. It’s created an amazing camaraderie. The bond that we’ve formed in two years is unbelievable. We book that February weekend like it’s a family vacation that we have penciled in every year. Everyone lines up childcare, and we relive the glory days and reflect on childhood memories."
Barnea’s interpretation of pond hockey poses an interesting question about pond hockey. Is it a sport or an experience?
It depends on who you ask.
