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Outdoor rink rats, please apply: it’s the pond hockey playoffs.

In Plaster Rock, NB, hockey means the fresh-air, everything goes, rowdy kind. And the whole world shows up.

No goalies, no boards to bounce pucks (or opposing players) against, no limping back to the bench. This, my friend, is pond hockey. It’s about as pure as the game can get: played outdoors on temporary rinks set up on frozen sheets of lake or river. Spectators sip their coffee — spiked with a shot of Canadian rye whiskey — as they cheer on their players. Skating and puck-handling skills vary wildly from team to team. Local fans root loudly for underdogs who take spectacular spills and pick themselves right up again, striped like skunks from neckline to kneecaps in a coating of ice shavings.
This coming February, in the village of Plaster Rock, NB, the World Pond Hockey Championship celebrates its 7th anniversary. It takes 200-plus volunteers to make it happen, recruited from the local population of just 1,300. From all over the world, 120 four-person teams will join the fray, ready to lace up their skates for a wild and woolly outdoor playoff in freezing temps. No rink: the action unfolds on the frozen Roulston Lake where GPS (Global Positioning Systems) help organizers set up in the same location every year.

The US is well represented with 25 states. But audience favourites hail from tropical climes — Egypt and Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Puerto Rico; “certainly not hockey hotbeds!” notes organizer Danny Braun.

But come while it’s still a nippy, rowdy outdoor event. Proceeds from the World Pond Hockey Championship go towards a fund to build a local indoor community arena.
www.worldpondhockey.com
www.plasterrock.com

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Usage guidelines

We welcome you to use these story ideas as inspiration for your own stories about Canada. The CTC owns all rights worldwide. (Our images are also royalty-free and available for editorial print, broadcast and electronic use.) If you choose to reproduce these texts for editorial use only, please include the author's byline and "courtesy of the Canadian Tourism Commission." If you cut, edit or modify the text in any way, please include this note: "The text has been modified from the original." Thank you.

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