Former pond hockey tournament is back in Sudbury, Ont., but it will happen on outdoor rinks

For the first time since the pandemic started, Sudbury's Pond Hockey Festival on the Rock will be back. But it won't take place on the northern Ontario city's Ramsey Lake this year.

Instead, games between the festival's 30 teams will be split between three rinks.

Festival chair Daniel DeNoble said the company that previously helped build the skating rinks on Ramsey Lake wasn't available to help out this year.

Organizers will make use of two outdoor rinks at the Robinson and Delki Dozzi playgrounds, and an indoor ice surface at the Northern Hockey Academy on Kelly Lake Road.

DeNoble said they will still be able to welcome crowds at the event, but had to cut the number of teams participating.

"We're encouraging people to come check it out and help support the cause," DeNoble said. 

"So we expect to have, in the next week or so, the schedule posted about where the games are in the different locations."

DeNoble said using rinks instead of the lake this year makes it easier to organize the event.

"Typically, with the outdoor rinks, it's a little bit easier to flood," he said. "So the outdoor rinks have been open now for, I guess, it would be probably close to a month."

Ramsey Lake skating path open

The annual skating part that spans 1.5 kilometres along Ramsey Lake opened on Jan. 23.

City spokesperson Sacha Novack said in an email to CBC News the skate path has historically opened from mid-January to early February, depending on the season. The ice needs to be at least 45 centimetres thick for it to open.

The Pond Hockey Festival on the Rock will take place on Friday, Feb. 3 and Saturday, Feb. 4. Funds raised during the tournament will go to Camp Quality Northern Ontario, for children affected by cancer, and Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer.