Hundreds of young hockey players will hit the ice on Surrey, Cloverdale and White Rock rinks over the holiday season, as local associations host a plethora of Christmastime tournaments.
One of the busiest rinks in the region is Fleetwood’s Surrey Sports and Leisure Complex (16555 Fraser Hwy.), which this week has already hosted one tournament – Tier 1 and Tier 2 peewee squads took part in the Cloverdale Christmas Challenge from Dec. 19-21 – and is set to host two others before the holiday season wraps up.
From Dec. 27-30, Cloverdale Minor Hockey Association will host the Bantam Ice Crusher tournament, while peewee house-league players will take part in the association’s New Year’s tourney, set to be held from from Dec. 30 until Jan. 2.
Surrey Minor Hockey, meanwhile, will run two events this month.
The Julie Paskall Memorial Tournament – honouring the memory of the hockey mom who was killed in December 2014 – will run at North Surrey Arena (10275 City Parkway) from Dec. 27-31, and will feature atom, peewee, bantam and midget house-league teams, while the association’s atom A2/A3 Christmas Tournament will be held over the same dates at Newton Arena (7120 136B St.).
Further south, Semiahmoo Minor Hockey will also host a pair of tournaments – the Semiamhoo Christmas Challenge, which for peewee teams runs Dec. 26-29 and for atom squads, Dec. 27-30. Games for both tournaments will be played at both White Rock’s Centennial Arena (14600 North Bluff Rd.) and South Surrey Arena (2199 148 St.).
On Dec. 18 at South Surrey Arena, the association kicked off the holiday hockey schedule with the Boston Pizza Initiation Winter Classic, which featured Semiahmoo Minor’s youngest skaters.