USA Hockey Adult Hockey

When a tournament rookie team from Texas first caught sight of Dollar Lake in Eagle River, Wis., at the 2010 Labatt Blue USA Hockey Pond Hockey National Championships, the players were stunned by what lay before them.

“Quite frankly I was really just blown away by the number of teams that were here and the energy surrounding the event,” said Terry Balluck, who played with the Punishers of Texas.

Teammate Doug Kline said he was in “awe” and Ray Hambrick said the sight of 24 rinks and a mere fraction of the 225 teams on the ice Friday morning put hockey on an entirely new level.

“It was kind of a hockey nirvana,” Hambrick said.

The Punishers joined scores of players who were experiencing the tournament for the first time. The event, in its fifth year, has more than quadrupled in size since it’s inception and USA Hockey credits much of that growth to new teams willing to make the trip to Eagle River.

The biggest reason the tournament is growing, however, is that the new teams become veteran teams one year later. Balluck said it’s easy to see how rookie teams are often seen booking hotel rooms for the next year before the champions are crowned at the conclusion of the tournament.

“I’ve played one game and I’m hooked,” he said.

Hambrick said his first game, which the Punishers won 12-11, was enough for him to ask his wife if they could plan on the 2011 event.

The Punishers were not only rookies at the event, but also at skating on outdoor ice. After playing all of their hockey on indoor ice sheets, the Texas team took to the ice on Friday to find an entirely different type of surface.

Hambrick said stick handling and passing was more difficult, but he and his teammates said they weren’t worried about the ice conditions.

“There’s nothing like this anywhere in Texas so the experience was totally fresh and totally unique,” Balluck said.

Kline said the best part of the event was playing hockey the way it began.

“It’s so amazing to be a part of something that really grasps the origins of how hockey is played,” he said.

Balluck, holding a Labatt Blue and smiling as the setting sun dazzled the few remaining players on Dollar Lake, said the first of his team’s guaranteed three games was enough to bring the Texas team back again.

“I just had so much fun today,” he said.