The Lac La Biche Kinsmen club hosted the 10th annual On the Pond hockey tournament on Saturday, March 9. Minor hockey teams from across northern Alberta joined in the fun.
No overhead lights, no heated seats, no boards, plexiglass or scoreboards ... just clean hockey, played on one of eight rinks carved out of the lake's frozen surface.
"It's a great thing to watch. We love doing it every year," said Lac La Biche Kinsmen club member and the coordinator of the event, Rob McCormick. "The kids have smiles on their faces - and so do lots of the people who come down to see it."
The annual event takes the help of the Lac La Biche Kinsmen club as well as dozens of other volunteers and groups who donate time, effort and funding to the massive undertaking that turns a portion of the Lac La Biche lakeshore into an on-ice hockey village for a day.
"It takes about two months from the first day we go to measure out the rinks to when we drop the first puck and the day starts," said McCormick. "It's lots of work, but we have lots of help and we really appreciate all that help."
With this year's event just finished, the club is already thinking about next year's event. The phones start ringing and the emails start coming in the summer time for teams that want to register, said McCormick.
"Once teams experience it, they want to come back - and we're happy to have them."
