U.S. Pond Hockey Championships: Kings of the Pond

At the end of a grueling weekend, the Whiskey Bandits found themselves down a couple of goals against Wright Homes Almost 40 in the final game of last year's U.S. Pond Hockey Championships.

The two teams were no strangers, having met in the 2008 championship game, when Wright Homes bumped off the Bandits 8-4. The win gave Wright Homes its second Golden Shovel trophy in the tourney's first three years. The Bandits had won it the other year.

"I remember being down by a bunch of goals thinking, 'Here we go again,'" Bandits player Nick Hanrahan said.

But with a never-say-die attitude and a few lucky bounces, the Bandits pushed the game into overtime, when Hanrahan corralled a Wright Homes misfire and sailed a pass down to teammate Timmy Olsen. Dave Bakken of Wright Homes managed to get a stick on it, but it wasn't enough to prevent the puck from finding Olsen, who put away the game-winning goal.

"It was exciting, I can tell you that much," Hanrahan gushed.

The annual tournament on Lake Nokomis gives grown-up hockey junkies the chance to square off in four-on-four competition. Since the Pond Hockey Championships' inaugural year in 2006, the Whiskey Bandits and Wright Homes Almost 40 have been the preeminent pond squads. Only once, in 2009, has another team won the open division. You might call Bandits-Wright Homes the Celtics-Lakers of pond hockey. However, at the end of the weekend-long tourney, Bird and Magic return to their daily lives running a construction company (Wright Homes' Curt Wright) and working for Xerox as an operations manager (the Bandits' Hanrahan).

Considering that last year's open division fielded 150 amateur teams, the fact that the two camps have put together -- dare we say -- dynasties is no feat to scoff at. So, are all those victories the result of year-round midnight practices and chemistry-building drills?

"We do our regular hockey skates and that's about it, just to keep in shape and have a couple beers with the boys, you know?" said Wright.

So much for that theory. Though organized practices aren't in the mix, most players have logged plenty of on-ice minutes over the years, competing at the high school, collegiate and in some cases minor-league levels. Others, like Bakken, who heads the Como Park High School boys' varsity squad, continue to coach youth hockey.

From their championship showdowns and playing with and against each other in various leagues, the guys from both teams have become quite familiar with one another over the years. Hanrahan admits to keeping tabs on Wright Homes each year to see if their paths are destined to cross, hopefully not in the preliminary rounds. The teams are 1-1 when meeting in Sunday's final contest.

While even good-natured banter between the respected adversaries has been relatively subdued, when the teams face off, the competitive juices are flowing.

"Everybody says it's chippy, but we call it hockey," Wright said, laughing. "Nobody's laying anybody out, but everybody's fighting for position, so obviously you're going to have some bodies hitting."

Convivial atmosphere aside, the 2012 tournament represents a chance for the Bandits, who have two Golden Shovels to Wright Homes' three, to reclaim some beer-tent bragging rights.

"Oh, yeah, we'll be ready," Hanrahan said. "We don't play unless we're willing to win it."