Pond hockey returns to Meredith Bay

MEREDITH — After a couple years in a row on Lake Waukewan, the 16th New England Pond Hockey Classic is back where it should be: right on Lake Winnipesaukee. And it was packed Friday morning for opening day.

Before 8 a.m., organizers and fans rolled into downtown Meredith to get the day started on the Big Lake. Bob houses, which serve as locker rooms, cropped up on the ice and players began filling 26 ice hockey rinks, spaced out with snow-capped walkways in between. 

At Hart’s Turkey Farm, yellow school buses shuttled masses of players and fans down to the lake. In the parking lot were cars from all over New England, with a clear overrepresentation of Granite State and Massachusetts plates. 

On a bus which collected around 20 players there at 9:15 a.m. Friday, the groups buzzed with enthusiasm, stacking hockey sticks and bags full of gear in the first two rows of benches as they clamored toward the back. They were clearly excited, speaking loudly to one another and singing along to Ronnie Milsap's 1981 country-western hit “I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World” over Lakes 101.5 FM. 

Pond Hockey Classic Commissioner Scott Crowder said the tournament was full this year — 275 teams registered brought about 2,200 players to Meredith for the reinvigoration of the tournament, which was fraught with obstacles over the past five years.

Tournament crews began work on the venue about 2.5 weeks ago, clearing snow from the ice and pumping fresh water onto the surface to ensure perfect conditions for the event.

“It’s great,” Crowder said. “It’s kind of a return to where it’s supposed to be.”

Lakes Region residents and pond hockey enthusiasts have been lucky this year. A handful of serious cold snaps froze the lake and deposited thick layers of ice, helping to keep the tournament in its intended location. In 2020, the event went off without a hitch, but not long afterward most of the world stopped in its tracks in response to the COVID pandemic.

A half-sized tournament was staged in 2021, and the planned event was canceled the next year after rainy conditions made it unfeasible. In 2023 and 2024, organizers held the tournament, but moved it to Lake Waukewan.

Waukewan is about 1 mile away from Meredith Bay, and it freezes reliably, but players think it’s just not the same. 

This year, the community got behind the event, which received support from numerous local businesses and also Coors Light. The “silver bullet” beverage company even set up a “chill zone” on the outskirts of the tournament, and by 9:30 a.m. it was packed with players and spectators, the libations were already flowing without impediment.

“It’s impressive, the amount of people who come out to support the event,” Crowder said.

Teams play two games on Friday and on Saturday, and there’s a playoff bracket on Sunday.

On one of the many rinks Friday morning, The Wizards’ Sleeves of Massachusetts were head-on in a competition with the Mediocre Mallards of Boston. The Mallards were losing, and losing badly.

“A lot to a little, a lot to a little,” Ben Nachtigal, a Boston project manager, said with a laugh when asked how badly his team was down.

He came up from Boston with his team, made up of others with precious little hockey playing experience.

“Most of us started playing just in the past few years, all as adults,” Nachtigal said. “We’re so lucky, we started playing no-commitment games and fell in love with the sport, got really close. This team is the closest of any we’ve ever played in — group chat’s always firing, and we’re talking about lines immediately after the game up until puck drop.”

It’s their first time on the ice in Meredith, and they were having a great time.

“Dude, we’re playing pond hockey, we’re having a hell of a time,” Nachtigal said. “We’re playing in our first tournament and we’re pumped to be here, couldn’t be happier.”

Was Nachtigal confident about his team’s chance?

“We’ll see, we’ll see,” he said.

It takes a lot of work to make the tournament run correctly. Hayden Hebron, an Inter-Lakes High School sophomore, was working a “winter job” Friday at Meredith Bay. His responsibility is to blow an air horn, operated by a screw gun, signaling to players the starts and stops for each period of their games.

“I don’t play hockey, but my dad is friends with one of the guys running it. So I asked to do it, so that’s how I got here,” Hebron said. “I’ve had a couple other summer jobs, but this is my only winter job.”

To be clear, this is Hebron’s favorite job.

“I usually come out to watch every year, but this is my first year working,” Hebron said. “It’s all pretty fun.”

The point of the Pond Hockey Classic is to bring people together for their love of the game, he explained. 

“It’s basically people beating up each other on the ice while they’re throwing pucks around,” Hebron said. 

Two such people were Jack Karanasios, who works in television ad sales, and Eric Vindigni, who builds snowboards. They represent the Mounted Reinbeers and hail from far and wide, Manchester to New York, New Jersey and beyond.

“Playing some hockey, having some fun,” Vidigni said. 

“Definitely, it’s so much more fun out here on this lake, so much more fun,” Karanasios said.

They’d already played one game Friday morning, and also lost, badly. 

“We’re a little short-staffed, but we’re just having fun, we got our butts kicked in the first one” Vindigni said.

“Tough first one, tough first one,” Karanasios said. “We’ll see what happens in the next one.”