{"id":5438,"date":"2018-04-20T14:13:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T14:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/2018\/04\/20\/beer-league-hockey-for-kids\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T16:30:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T16:30:45","slug":"beer-league-hockey-for-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/beer-league-hockey-for-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"“Beer League” Hockey for Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less-structured action for kids resembling the way that adults enjoy the game in recreational leagues across Canada is an interesting idea – giving them the chance to relax on the rules and just enjoy the game we all love.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s this exact concept that is getting quite a bit of traction in Surrey.<\/em><\/p>\n

Full story found ici<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

In the lobby at Excellent Ice, a colour-coded video screen that shows game times and rink numbers says it all about the fun of three-on-three hockey.<\/p>\n

The Devil\u2019s Rejects, Blue Donkeys of Doom, Buzzer Beaters, Flying Hellfish, Shake n\u2019 Bake, Who Needs Teeth \u2013 these are team names in a league that could be dubbed \u201cbeer league\u201d hockey for kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it\u2019s more like organized street hockey on ice,\u201d Lyle Wingert, who manages the league, said with a laugh. \u201cWe call it pond hockey in the brochure and on the website, so there are a few names for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excellent Ice, an arena located in a Panorama-area business park, southwest of Highway 10 and 152nd Street, boasts three \u201cmini\u201d rinks for hockey.<\/p>\n

Each spring, when local hockey associations conclude their seasons, a large number of young players lace up for some additional on-ice action, in a much less structured environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis spring we have about 2,400 players on around 222 teams, from Hockey 1, which is five-year-olds, right up to Midget-aged players, who are 17,\u201d said Wingert.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Those numbers don\u2019t include the facility\u2019s adult leagues, which involve an additional 400-plus players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s grown, no doubt,\u201d added Wingert, who has run leagues at Excellent Ice for close to 14 years, \u201cand this is the busiest time of year, right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The facility in Surrey is a unique one that attracts young players from as far afield as Chilliwack and Whistler for weekly hour-long games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a couple guys who play in the men\u2019s league come from Victoria,\u201d Wingert noted. \u201cThey took a ferry every week to play hockey here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among local associations, the five-on-five game of winter includes rules that don\u2019t allow hockey players to cross boundaries. For example, a player who lives in Surrey couldn\u2019t just one day start playing for a team in Langley.<\/p>\n

At Excellent Ice, however, those rules are out the window, allowing parents and their kids to form \u201cbuddy\u201d teams, sometimes with players from other areas, on squads boasting some colourful names.<\/p>\n

Robert Johns, a Cloverdale-area father of two, has coached teams there for eight years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of my boys, their teams are all their buddies, so it\u2019s beer league for those kids,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cI bring in a cooler full of cold root beer, and they drink that after the game, it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three-on-three game, Johns said, allows young players to get more creative on the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to do things they can\u2019t do in five-on-five,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause they carry the puck more here, shoot more, handle it more and develop those skills. There\u2019s way more flow, too, because there are no off-sides, no icing. They get the puck, chase it, and some magic happens every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s great to have the arena so close to home, Johns added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is in our backyard but we\u2019ve played teams from Bellingham that come up here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents love it too because they can grab breakfast, lunch, dinner, a cold beer, while the kids are having fun on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darin Vetterl, who has run the Rangers instructional program at Excellent Ice for eight years, has seen some high-level players skate there, including current Edmonton Oilers winger Jujhar Khaira (a Surrey native) and Vancouver Canucks D-man Troy Stecher (who grew up in Richmond).<\/p>\n

With the Rangers, he focuses on the younger kids \u2013 players aged five, six and seven, mostly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this game, they learn some other skills,\u201d Vetterl said. \u201cLike, you have a kid who scores a lot of goals, then put them on the back end so they learn how to see the ice, make breakout plays and also carry the puck. The smaller ice, and less players on it, is a huge benefit that way. They have to make decisions faster, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wingert, who works as an amateur scout for the NHL\u2019s Colorado Avalanche, says the fun of the three-on-three game helps build better players in the long run.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoalies get a ton of shots, which can be good for them, even though a lot of goals get scored in this game,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd for skaters, it\u2019s a different game where there are more two-on-ones, down-low cycling, use of speed. The concept most coaches try to teach in five-on-five is, two or three steps then pass the puck, right, and you have to do it here because you always have someone on top of ya. That\u2019s a nice avenue, but again, you\u2019re trying to generate a two-on-one opportunity at any given place on the ice. The players also touch the puck here more than five-on-five, so they practice those puckhandling skills more, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than that, Wingert emphasized the ability of the three-on-three game to make any player shine.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we\u2019re not replacing five-on-five, but it\u2019s the concept of allowing all the kids to score, even the weaker kids who sometimes get left off the scoresheet,\u201d Wingert explained. \u201cThey get the opportunity to shoot and get goals in the three-on-three game more often. Even things like a penalty. Nobody sits in the box here, the player (who was fouled) gets to take a penalty shot, so there\u2019s more scoring that way too. That\u2019s exciting for a little kid and maybe their grandparents who come and watch and never get to see that kid have a chance to score a goal like that. Some kids go through a whole (winter) season and not score a goal, until they get here. It\u2019s a great experience for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

On weekends, Excellent Ice absolutely buzzes with players, parents and siblings who are there either watching the action or creating it on ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur games start at seven in the morning and go right up to 11 o\u2019clock at night,\u201d Wingert boasted. \u201cThere are 12 games on every rink here on weekends, with three 20-minute periods, running time. It can get crazy in here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every so often, Wingert gears up for a skate around one of the \u201cponds\u201d at the busy hockey hub.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still play, yes,\u201d he said. \u201cI still enjoy it, and I actually prefer this \u2013 and I\u2019m not just saying that because I run it. It\u2019s just more like street hockey to me. I played ball hockey, some junior hockey, but this is fun, brings back the child in me.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Less-structured action for kids resembling the way that adults enjoy the game in recreational leagues across Canada is an interesting idea – giving them the chance to relax on the rules and just enjoy the game we all love.\u00a0 It’s this exact concept that is getting quite a bit of traction in Surrey. Full story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"segment":[],"class_list":["post-5438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5439,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5438\/revisions\/5439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5438"},{"taxonomy":"segment","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/segment?post=5438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}