Puck will drop for pond hockey tourney like no other

MEREDITH — Of all the people in the Lakes Region, perhaps no one was happier to see today’s forecast of frigid temperatures than Scott Crowder, founder of the New England Pond Hockey Classic.

“It couldn’t have come at a more opportune time, it was looking pretty wet there for a while,” said Crowder, referring to the surface of Meredith Bay where he has welcomed hockey players from near and far since 2010 for a weekend of back-to-basics hockey. The games are played between small groups, usually of teams made of friends, in open air and on natural ice.

That natural ice, though, doesn’t always come on schedule, and that was certainly the case this year. Crowder noted that there was more ice on Meredith Bay on Dec. 20 than on Jan. 20. Mother Nature has a way of regressing back to her mean, though, and that’s just what happened this week. With the event scheduled for Feb. 5-7, her timing was impeccable.

“We made some good ice in the past week, we’ve got our crews out there now, with the cold temps we’re getting, we’ll be in good shape to drop the puck,” Crowder said. “That being said, this event is going to look like it never has.”

That, of course, is because of the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID cross-check

Due to Vermont’s restrictions, Crowder had to cancel a similar event he has been hosting on Lake Champlain, but he said Meredith and New Hampshire officials have been cooperative in helping him to find a way to put on his hockey tournament while still following all of the state’s guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19. That means this year’s event will be bereft of the usual festival-like atmosphere.

There will be no on-ice beer garden, live music or food vendors. In fact, spectators won’t be allowed into the tournament area at all. Only those players who have an imminent match will be permitted to enter, and only after they’ve passed a health check performed by Stewart’s Ambulance staff.

There will be far fewer of those players this year, too. In adherence to state guidelines, players won’t be allowed to use public transportation to come to the game, and those who are arriving from outside of New England will have to quarantine for ten days prior to the tournament. Considering that those players would likely have to quarantine again after returning to their home state, it’s understandable that the usually-sold out event is down to 130 teams this year, compared to a typical 280 teams. The tournament footprint is correspondingly smaller, with 14 rinks instead of 26.

Crowder said game schedules were built such that each team’s games for the day will be either back-to-back or with just a one-game break between them, and players who don’t have an upcoming game will be asked to leave the rinks.

“You’re going to see a lot less of a hang-out on the ice than you normally would,” Crowder said. “We’re going to know what teams should be playing and what teams shouldn’t be playing.”

Players will be required to wear masks when they enter the rink area, when they are rinkside and when they are playing; in short, whenever they aren’t eating or drinking.

“If they need to wet their whistle, they’re going to do the way they would at a bar or restaurant,” Crodwer said.

With great airflow, masking and other safety requirements, Crowder said the tournament should be no riskier than ski areas, which have been permitted to operate this winter.

Mixed emotions

Crowder was a collegiate hockey player who had barely graduated when he founded the tournament in 2010, has grown the tournament into an event that delights locals during a slow time of winter and which draws enthusiasts from hundreds of miles away. There’s no sugar-coating it – this year’s tournament will be a shadow of its usual self, and he said he has mixed feelings about it.

“It’s sad to not be able to host what you usually do, not to have all our partners come out and do the big festival spectacle,” he said. It’s also been hard for him to see so many teams cancel. “To not have the teams with us who have been with us since year one, that’s the hardest part.

“On the other side of the coin, I’m proud of our team for plugging through and navigating these challenging times, while other events have just thrown in the towel,” he said. Credit also goes to municipal and state officials, he said, who acted as partners to make sure the event would be safe.

“I live here in Meredith. I understand the impact of people coming into the town. We’re taking all the precautions. The ones who aren’t able to hit the guidelines aren’t here, and the ones who come, we’re stressing to them to be respectful of the community… so we can have a fun weekend of pond hockey.

“Next year we’ll get back to people being inside and cheering on some players.”

Off-site concessions

A short walk from Meredith Bay, Surfside Burger Bar’s general manager Shawn Deegan said he was worried for a while that the event might be canceled.

“It’s a huge weekend for us, the middle of February is a very slow time. Even as a smaller event, it will bring some business that we wouldn’t see,” Deegan said.

Surfside has installed heated, single-party outdoor shelters Deegan calls “igloos,” so that patrons can get a burger and beverage while still isolating from crowds. The restaurant is planning to host SuperNothing, a local reggae band, for an outdoor performance on the Saturday of the hockey tournament.

Even though the total number of visitors will be down this year, Deegan said he’s hoping nearby establishments will still do well since there won’t be food or drinks offered on the ice.

“It looks like it’s going to be a great event,” Deegan said. “I think you’ll see a lot more uptick this year.”

At the Meredith Area Chamber of Commerce, president Julie Hayward said the Pond Hockey Classic has become a dependable winter boost for local businesses.

“It has a huge impact. All the usual suspects, restaurants and lodging, not just in Meredith, but Center Harbor, even up through Plymouth, Gilford and Laconia, it’s so big that it’s absorbed throughout the area,” Hayward said.

Though the event is smaller this year, she said the extra business will be more appreciated than ever.

“From our perspective, it is a positive thing, especially for our restaurants. They are probably the number one industry, next to lodging, that are being browbeat by this (pandemic),” she said.

She said the event risked losing “momentum” if Crowder decided to take a year off. The chamber decided to cancel its 2020 art festival, they’re now trying to revive it for 2021.

“We know how it hurts to skip events. I think that the businesses will welcome having more traffic than the local traffic, as long as people follow all the guidelines and everything that has been beat into us over the last 10 months, everybody should come out of this just fine.”