Outdoor hockey players in Alberta break records, raise $1.8M for cancer research

The world’s longest hockey game in Alberta broke multiple records this year.

Forty people took turns playing hockey on an outdoor rink near Edmonton during record cold temperatures 24 hours a day, seven days a week since Feb. 4.

The teams, named Team Hope and Team Cure, hit the 252-hour mark at about 6 a.m. Monday to break their own Guinness World Record. The final score of the game was 2,649 to 2,528 for Team Hope.

“It went amazing,” Kate Gallagher, one of the event’s organizers, said in an interview.

She said the seventh edition of the game has raised more than $1.8 million so far — higher than the $1.5-million goal — for cancer research at the University of Alberta.

The event, which had special rules this year to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, was first started in 2003 by doctor Brent Saik, who lost his father to cancer. He kept it going after his wife also died from the disease.

The game is always played on an outdoor rink on Saik’s rural property near Sherwood Park, Alta. Players, who were in an “NHL-style bubble,” had to deal with extreme cold weather that persisted for much of the 10 days.

Pucks were shattering as players passed them along the boards, skate blades broke in half, pieces of masks fell off as glue let go and goalie pads cracked in the bitter cold. Temperatures dropped to between -40 C and -55 with the windchill at times.

“This was definitely the coldest game we’ve ever seen,” said Gallagher, who noted they finished with sore bodies and blistered toes, but no major injuries.

“It was all part of the adventure. The players were troupers. They were warriors.”