'They're going to go crazy': Hockey players ready to get back on Cambridge Bay's rink

Even the lack of a rink hasn't stopped the hockey spirit in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

Mould forced the shutdown of the rink in December 2017 but the minor hockey board created a ball hockey league to keep the league going. It's hoped that the rink could open again as early next week, but for now players are making the most of it.

"They kept it alive by coming out to ball hockey and playing hockey out on the streets and behind the high school," said minor hockey coach Derek Marshall.

Marshall says the people working on the rink have been doing double shifts to get it ready for opening.

Mackenzie Otokiak is one of the players who hasn't let the lack of ice stop her. The 16-year-old plays hockey in a women's group where players range in age from 10 to 30.

"Not having the rink, I think let down the whole community," she said. "Everybody was into the arena and it was gone, so town was kind of quiet. Other people were playing different sports. Us girls, we just had dry-land training or street hockey."

She said she's been missing hockey a lot but she doesn't have any worries about playing again.

"I'll just go straight onto the ice."

Tracy Okhina, who coaches the women's team, said losing the rink has been tough but the reopening will be really exciting for everyone.

"I think they're going to go crazy," she said. "They'll be happy and excited to get back on the ice."

Okhina said the players goof around in the dressing room but once they're out on the ice, she sees a change in the women.

"Watching them play, watching them smile, just seeing their faces out there…. It's not like any other sport."

Marshall said hockey is one of the major sports in the community but the rink is a hub for so much more.

"They use the rink for a lot of different things and different events. People just come out and they hang out and we have skating, free skating, on the weekends and then there's tournaments."

They're hoping to get a tournament together for the end of March.

"The kids they want to play. They want to play so bad. And I know last year it was hard for them not having a rink but we're going to have one this year. It might only be for a month and a half but we will have ice."

Watching them play, watching them smile, just seeing their faces out there … It's not like any other sport.- Tracy Okhina, coach of Cambridge Bay women's hockey team

He said the community pulled together to get through the challenge of not having a rink.

They even won an award for their efforts to keep hockey alive — the award banner from the Recreation and Parks Association of Nunavut will be the first one they hang in the new arena.

"It's a minor hockey award but it's more for the kids and the community because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have got it."