First day of Pond Hockey Classic canceled due to bad weather

MEREDITH — Foul weather resulted in the cancellation of the first day of the New England Pond Hockey Classic on Friday morning. The massive, 260-team tournament was cut short Friday morning as bloated snowflakes and high winds deteriorated the quality of the ice faster than organizers could keep up. Players and organizers were hopeful that the game would be back on for Saturday and Sunday.

“The weather really wasn’t on our side,” said Will Johnstone, head of ice operations for the classic. “Everyone showed up and worked as hard as they could to try and get it off. All we can do is clean it off and get ready for tomorrow.”

“It’s a bummer, but you can’t change the weather,” said player Ben Cuneo, “It sucks. Mother Nature happens.” When asked about the prospects for the weekend's weather, Cuneo answered, “Who cares? We’re gonna play hockey and drink beer. We’re gonna have fun.”

With hockey off the menu for the day, many players retreated back to their lodgings, tailgates, fire barrels and ice shanties to wait for the weather to abate.

The cancellation is a first in the tournament’s 13-year history, and came as a minor disappointment. However, players didn’t seem to hold it against organizers and spirits remained high.  

“Scott and I went to UMass together,” said Sean Page, a member of the Massachusetts-based team the Hatrick Swayzes – each team member's jersey bore the name of a different Patrick Swayze film – as he spoke about the Classic’s founder and organizer, Scott Crowder. “We were both sport management majors. We did a couple projects together. He gets out of college, realizes he’s not gonna keep playing hockey and he turns this thing around just like that. It’s just incredible to see how much he’s grown this from when this just started up. I give him a lot of credit. He lives for this stuff.”

As of this writing, the posted schedule for the rest of the weekend had not changed. Saturday's games were still set to run from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., with playoff brackets set to be announced online at 8 p.m. Sunday's playoff games will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with the champion games starting at 1:15 p.m. 

Updates can be found on New England Pond Hockey Classic's Facebook page.