Hockey In Utah

I’m writing this while still in Utah, so by the time you read this, I’ll be home again.

We were in Utah this past weekend to cheer on our youngest grandson (12) and his 12UA team. I’m not sure why they called it the Salt Lake City tourney (officially the Grizz Cup). Our first game was held in Cottonwood Heights, 17 miles from our hotel in downtown Salt Lake. That arena was warm enough we were able to sit (stand) and cheer comfortably without our heavy winter coats on. It was a close game, which our Gulf Coast Flames lost, 8-7.

The next game was in Park City, a jaunt of 34 miles. The ice rink was way up the mountain and had apparently been used for curling in the 2002 Olympics. All the rinks feature Olympic-sized sheets, which is much more ice surface than our kids are used to. Not only were they battling a team on their home rink, they were also battling altitude sickness. The Flames, from Florida, are used to being maybe 500’ above sea level. The Park City rink sits at 6,890’! One of the team moms had bought some form of oxygen the kids could use on the bench. They sell it at the local Walmart. Even at that, they were struggling. While they played their hearts out, they ended up on the wrong side of the 5-2 final score.

Park City is one of those tourist-y ski towns. After the game, our daughter and grandson and us dined at one of the chi-chi steakhouses in downtown Park City. The food, while pricey by Montana standards, was excellent. It was a great experience for our grandson as we were able to watch people going up the mountain via the ski lift from our table. We also could see them gliding back down to the ski lift right beside us.

The third game was in Provo, another 34 mile jaunt, but in a different direction. The altitude there was only 4,551’, so it wasn’t as hard for the Florida team to breathe. The team is co-ed, with two great girls competing hard with the boys. The easier breathing resulted in a win, 4-3.

That win was crucial, as it put us in fourth place. So we had another game that same evening, to decide if we’d just go home or get to compete in the championship match. They’ll be facing that same Park City team that bested us up the mountain. But we won’t have to fight altitude sickness again, as this match will be in Murray, Utah, 10 miles away from the hotel. And Murray sits at 4,301’ above sea level.

This is now much later: we’re just back to the hotel from that semi-final game. They won, 2-1, in a squeaker. The winning goal was put in the net with only 46 seconds left on the clock. This team is peaking at the right time. We’d all (parents, grandparents, siblings, coaches) just hoped they’d play respectably. That Park City team had been winning this tournament for years, and we eliminated them from the competition.

So now we will be facing the first team that we lost to, on Monday morning (MLK Day), in yet another town. It’s late Sunday night, and I don’t have the energy or ambition to look up the town name nor the altitude, but our daughter says it’s 25 minutes away. We’ll get to play on ice that was actually used in the Olympics. You’ll have to read next week’s column to find out if we took the trophy or not.