Star Tribune
Players mourn cancellation of U.S. Pond Hockey Championships — by playing hockey
“Cold as Ice” by Foreigner blared from a portable speaker as Steve Wilson took to the rink Friday. He and about a dozen other Frontier Airlines pilots were among the hundreds of athletes whose weekend plans were dashed by the unseasonable warmth that forced U.S. Pond Hockey Championships organizers to cancel the second weekend of this year’s event.
Wilson and his fellow jocks were undeterred. They had traveled from Pennsylvania, Iowa, Belgium and many points in between to play hockey. So a group of would-be pond hockey players rented the Bloomington Ice Garden for a few hours to play several pickup rounds instead. Nobody is taking home a Golden Shovel this weekend, so why not have fun, anyway?
“I’ve done a lot in my life but this thing here — 80 dudes coming out to play pickup — it’s just cool,” Wilson said.
The pond hockey tournament, which usually takes place on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, is one of multiple events that have been drastically altered or outright canceled by an unusually warm winter. Twin Cities-area lakes are usually frozen solid by early December. In 2023, the region logged a record high 54 degrees and more than an inch of rain that month instead.
Last weekend offered a reprieve from the relatively toasty temperatures. The pond hockey tournament’s first few days went off without a hitch. Then things warmed up again.
“This event sometimes teeters between a couple of degrees, and we’ve had good luck, and we’ve had bad luck,” tournament organizers wrote on Facebook. “Last weekend was good luck, this weekend is bad luck.”
The cancellation led to an influx of visitors at the Ice Garden, according to Manager Lenny Schmitz. This winter, he’s seen an uptick in the number of people booking open skate time due to the lack of ice available outside. He lamented the balmy weather Friday but gladly took the displaced hockey players’ reservations.
“That ice — it doesn’t pay any bills,” Schmitz said.
In all, about 300 pond hockey players and thousands of spectators scrambled for alternative plans. Many traveled hundreds and even thousands of miles.
Tournament organizers set up a Facebook page for the athletes to connect and find facilities to play pickup games. Practically every team that showed up to the Bloomington facility had booked an Airbnb — Sean McCann and his friends on Team Antwerp traveled 11 hours from Belgium to compete.
They discovered the pond hockey championships on Instagram last year. The men named the team after their hometown.
“At first it was an idea and then it became real by saving up some money and getting flights,” McCann said.
He and teammates designed custom jerseys sporting a signature blue “A” and refused to let their new threads go to waste. Not that you could tell anyone in the Ice Garden had landed a consolation prize.
Smiles and fist bumps were abundant Friday morning, as the men played short matches and bounced between three makeshift rinks created by draping netting around the full rink to portion it out. U.S. Pond Hockey Championships organizers even loaned equipment to players who organized the pickup games.
Like many of the other men at the rink, Troy DuBay plays hockey every Sunday, and his team already spent the money and made plans to play at the tournament. They figured why not have a little fun anyway.
“It’s kind of a drunken weekend sort of thing, at least for our team,” DuBay said. “We still want to play.”
Several players in Bloomington said they were impressed by how quickly the pickup games came together. They took sips from water bottles — and cans of beer — while they waited for a teammate to tag them into the game.
“I’ve never seen any sport be able to come together like a community,” Josh Lee said.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
ST. CLOUD – On Tuesday, St. Cloud voters will be asked to make decisions on a new fire station and moving city elections to odd years, and — for those who live in Stearns County — how to fund a new county jail.
Here’s a look at the three referendum questions that are on St. Cloud-area ballots this year.
Ballot question: “Shall Stearns County be authorized to impose a sales tax & use tax of three-eighths of one percent to finance up to $325 million, plus associated bonding costs, for the construction of a justice center facility, consisting of law enforcement, judicial center and jail? The sales tax would be used solely to finance construction, upgrades and financing costs for the justice center and remain in effect for 30 years or until the project is paid for, whichever comes first. These services and facilities are mandated by the state of Minnesota to be provided by counties.”
Stearns County officials are planning to build a new $325 million justice center complex that includes a 270-bed jail, a judicial center with courtrooms, and a law enforcement center that houses the Sheriff’s Office. In the summer, Stearns County board members voted to move those facilities out of downtown and to a new location with more space. That site has yet to be determined.
The question before voters is how to fund that center.
County Administrator Mike Williams said a common misconception he’s heard at recent town halls is residents think voting “yes” gives permission to the county to build the facility, and if they vote “no,” the county won’t spend the money to build it.
“People [think they] are voting on the project — and they’re not. They’re voting on how we are going to fund it,” Williams said.
If voters approve the ballot question, the county will impose a sales tax to fund the project. If they vote it down, the county can instead pay for the project with property taxes.