Sudbury's annual Silver Stick hockey tournament is about to hit the ice.
Sudbury organizers are celebrating 50-plus years of the Silver Stick event, which is expected to continue as the largest hockey tournament in the North.
The annual event is a multi-day tournament for Sudbury-area hockey players, giving them a chance to play against teams from across Northeastern Ontario.
The games will be played Nov. 14 to 17 and Nov. 28 to Dec. 1, with players ranging in age groups from U18 AA all the way down to U10 A-division hockey. All the games are free to the public.
More complete details and registration links are available on the Sudbury Silver Stick website.
Games will be played at several city hockey arenas, including the T.M. Davies Community Centre and Arena, the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex, the McClelland Community Centre and Arena, the Garson Arena, the Chelmsford Arena and the Carmichael Arena. Altogether, there will be roughly 2,300 hockey players in the tournament.
Tournament director Peter Michelutti said the event is bringing in hundreds of players, coaches and family members from throughout Northern Ontario, central Ontario and the Ottawa Valley.
Winners at the local Silver Stick get to advance to higher levels of hockey across North America.
The tournament also provides a welcome economic boost to Greater Sudbury, Michelutti said.
"We have roughly 1,300 hotel rooms rented over the two weekends,” he said.
“You can't get a room in Sudbury. Every restaurant will be jam packed. The streets will be crowded. And for the Sudbury Wolves games, we sold more than 2500 tickets for two Wolves games on the Friday nights.”
The important thing is that it provides young players with exceptional tournament experience with teams they would not usually be playing, he added.
"We're going from 233 games last year to 283 games this year.”
Well-known Sudbury hockey mom M.J. Pappin invited city residents to take in the action and to make a social difference at the same time.
"On the Nov. 29 weekend, the City of Greater Sudbury has allowed us to use the Countryside Arena to stockpile donations for the Pregnancy Care Centre and Infant Food Bank that weekend," Pappin said.
The community steward said as much as young hockey players are taught to work hard on the ice, it was a good lesson about the importance of helping out people when they're off the ice. She said a donation station will be set up at the Countryside Arena.
The tournament begins Thursday at the Countryside Arena.