Team USA over-80 wins international hockey competition

ALTON — Ken McKinnon has been around hockey since he was old enough to skate. Last year, the Alton resident was given one of his more difficult assignments: fielding a hockey team to represent the United States against a formidable opponent from over the northern border in an annual international series.

The series sees a face-off between the best team from each side of the U.S.-Canada border, with one catch. The series is for players 80 and older, with centuries of experience on the ice at any given point.

McKinnon has been involved in the series since 2019, when Team USA won the cup. There weren’t any games in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic, but action picked up again in 2022. This time, McKinnon went from player to coach, as Team USA’s previous coach died, and McKinnon only had about four months to field a team. He started with the last roster the team had built.

“In 2019, all those guys were 82. In 2022, they were all 85. We had a weak team,” McKinnon said. That showed in the results of the two-game series. Canada thumped the U.S. in the first game, 8-1. Things were closer in the second game, with a 4-3 decision, but Canada won that game, too, and took home the cup.

McKinnon didn’t let the poor taste linger on his palate for long. For the 2023 series, which took place late in October in Burlington, Ontario, McKinnon spent nearly a full year building a new roster.

He added a few players from Colorado, and a new goalie from Berlin, who was a few years too young, but was the oldest keeper McKinnon could find.

“That gave us a really strong team,” McKinnon said, and the scoring was more competitive this year. USA won the first game 3-2, and the series was decided in a nail-biter. Team USA went up early in the second game, but late in the matchup, Canada came back, tied the score, then went up by one. As the third period’s buzzer was warming up, USA evened the score to snatch a tie from the mouth of defeat, sealing the series win.

“We got the cup back,” said a beaming McKinnon.

McKinnon, who grew up in Toronto, has been playing hockey since he was around 8 years old, and spent winters skating on backyard rinks in his neighborhood.

He came to New Hampshire for college, a star recruit for the University of New Hampshire team. After college, he got into officiating, and worked games at the high school, then college levels.

“I really loved refereeing,” McKinnon said. He appreciated how it kept him part of the sport, on the ice for some of the biggest New England collegiate games and how he got a close-up view of many future National Hockey League players.

Meanwhile, he was simultaneously helping to grow the sport in New Hampshire, particularly for players like him. He played in the Concord Capital Series, and started the Lakes Region Legends league out of the Merrill Fay Arena in Laconia in 1995.

One of the reasons why Team USA took home the 2023 cup was because of Larry Garon, 76, of Berlin, who joined the team this year as goalkeeper.

Garon, unlike McKinnon, wasn’t a hockey star in his younger years, even though he got his first hockey stick at 5 years old.

Garon said that stick was something he won at a church event, and his dad, a disabled veteran, couldn’t afford to get him any skates until he was a year or two older. But his dad didn’t just find skates, he also found a set of goalie pads, which proved to be critical.

Garon, like McKinnon, grew up playing hockey in backyard rinks — he remembers lights strung along clotheslines so the play could continue after sunset.

“We had more fun out there ... ” Garon said.

Garon didn’t play in high school, only recreationally, and then only on defense. But he knew some local elite players, and when he was 34, he got a phone call from one of them. They were playing in an adult men’s league, and they heard that he could play.

“I said, 'You must be mistaken,'” Garon said. His brother had been the better goalie, he pleaded, but the caller was insistent, and talked him into giving it a try. “I stayed a goalie after that."

It’s the puzzle of the position, particularly the mental element, that he finds so intriguing.

“When I started playing with these guys, I started learning the position, watching videos. I still do that before I play my Wednesday night pickup games,” Garon said. “I always study.”

He’s learned to read the way a player sets up, and can usually tell if he’s preparing to shoot or pass, and if they’re shooting, which part of the goal they’re aiming for.

“It’s the challenge of the game, it’s fun being able to take the shots and block them, sometimes even surprise the young guys. They say, ‘Oh, cripe! I can’t believe he got that!’” Garon said.

Garon has two bad knees, and has had each shoulder operated on twice. The promise of playing hockey, he said, keeps him active.

“It’s my carrot for exercising,” Garon said, and the chance to play for Team USA in international competition “was fantastic. ... If he puts a team together to defend the cup next year, I want to be back with him.”