Hockey Day in Canada hits Whitehorse

The crowds head over to the shinny rink by the SS Klondike

This year Hockey Day in Canada came to the Yukon Territory. February is celebrate winter month in Whitehorse - the Yukon Quest, the Available Light film festival, Frostbite music festival, the Yukon Ultra (nearly naked people running hundreds of kilometers through the Yukon bush) and Rendezvous winter festival (chain saw chucking, flour packing, can can dancing in snowshoes, Yukon specific sort of skills) and this year Hockey day piled in. We're all exhausted and its only mid-month.

Hockey day is actually more like a week. Early on Kluane National Park staff set up their hockey rink on the lake about 15 km out of town. With the rink in place the team anxious awaited teams to trounce.

The Zamboni cometh, 15 kilometres from town. (Parks Canada)

Further north in Dawson the Klondike Nuggets once again challenged the Ottawa Senators to another round of games with the same lop-sided but otherwise honourable result as they've had since their first Stanley Cup challenge in 1905.

The Yukon River hockey rink in Dawson.3,500 kilometers of arena parking. (Parks Canada)

The Governor-General (the one with the Gold skates of of course) hangs with the Nuggets in front of the net. (Parks Canada)

Although these prelude events were important the real action happened on Saturday noon on the shinny rink by the SS Klondike in Whitehorse. There the powerhouse teams of Parks Canada faced off with the Museum Monsters. Play was fast and I was amazed at how breathless you could get on a rink only 30 feet long.

The Hockey Cards - clipped and save for your collection.