There are plenty of reasons to call Buffalo “hockey heaven.” The Labatt Blue Buffalo Pond Hockey Tournament at Buffalo RiverWorks is one of them.From the Sabres to the Beauts, support for the sport continues to be strong across the region. With the pond hockey tournament now in its ninth year, Labatt Blue Associate Brand Manager Gina Heine says the event is as popular as ever.
“Buffalo has definitively been recognized recently as being a great hockey town. I think there’s a lot of excitement within the city right now going on and we’re really excited to be a part of that all,” said Heine. “I think, bringing the tournament and having it down at RiverWorks, we’re excited that we’re helping grow the excitement for the sport and the love for the sport.”
The games use a four-on-four format with no goalie and two 13-minute halves. This is the third straight year the tournament has been held at RiverWorks. Heine says it has come a long way since its inception.
“We’ve grown the tournament throughout the nine years. I’m pretty excited to say that this year we have 144 teams playing, which amounts to over 1,000 players and about 240 games overall,” said Heine. “When we started this tournament back in 2008, we were down at the Erie Basin Marina and we actually had only 16 teams.”
Weather restrictions have forced the tournament off the pond in past years, when it was played at the Inner Harbor. This year, that’s not a problem.
“There has been a couple of years where the pond actually when we played down at Erie Basin Marina did not freeze over due to weather conditions,” said Heine. “The great thing about being with RiverWorks is that going into the weekend, we have no concern about game plan. We’ll make sure that all three days game gameplay is on.”
Games will be played on six refrigerated ice rinks and can be viewed inside and outside. About 240 games are on the schedule with several other activities planned including custom painted hockey sticks and human bowling on ice.
The tournament started on Friday. Games run late each day both Saturday and Sunday.
