For Seth Noonkester of Rangeley, the Rangeley Pond Hockey Festival on Feb. 7 and 8 didn’t begin with a face-off. It began weeks earlier, in mid-January, when he plowed snow and started carving nine rinks on Haley Pond.

Noonkester’s team, the Rangeley Selects, along with the Beaver Mountain Bandits and Summit Homes, were the only teams with local players. Other participants traveled from elsewhere in Maine, New England, Canada and Florida. The four divisions were women’s, co-ed, men’s open and men’s casual.

Now in its 19th year, the tournament retains its festival feel: part competition, part reunion.

Noonkester is in his fourth year as president of the Rangeley Skating Club, which operates the tournament. Preparing the ice, he said, is “a science project.”

Toward the end of January, he staked and taped nine rinks measuring 70 feet by 140 feet. After plowing a massive area above about 28 inches of ice, he drilled holes and used a sump pump to flood each rink. Ten nights of flooding brought the ice close to perfect.

Before plowing begins, the ice is imperfect, Noonkester said. “You can’t ever plow the ice to be perfect.”

That attention to the ice has occasionally drawn tension. Three years ago, two men drilled fishing holes on the two Haley Pond public skating rinks. “The bodies of water in the state of Maine are open to anyone,” Noonkester said, “but because the community is so passionate about the public skating rinks, multiple people went down and badgered those guys.”

Looking beyond the tournament, Noonkester, 33, said he is fairly certain there is not a single ice arena in Franklin County. “My goal is that there is an ice arena in Franklin County before I die,” he said, noting that an indoor or roofed outdoor arena would remove the outdoor elements no one can control.

Night before

The tournament officially kicks off Friday night with a traditional team gathering. During the meeting, tournament organizer Alyssa Carignan of Saco pulls team captains aside in the stately foyer of the 1907 Rangeley Inn. A 6-foot, full-body mounted black bear and a giant moose head dominate the space, where management asks guests to request rags from the front desk to clean skating equipment rather than using room towels.

There, Carignan briskly reviews the rules: four-on-four, no goalies, no offsides. Games are 30 minutes with a five-minute intermission. Captains keep score because it is too cold for the 70-year-old former volunteers. Each team receives a bucket of pucks, a Sharpie and a scorecard.

“(During action) Don’t yell at me, I will yell back,” Carignan warns.

When Carignan promised the tents would be toasty thanks to new heaters, someone cracked, “Hey maybe we could get a dentist in one of those tents?” She pressed captains to turn in final rosters and warned that there were “too many Orange Beavers.”

As the meeting loosened up, captains debated what happens when a puck disappears into the snow. Another question followed: “What if a saucer pass occurs?”

“No slap shots or lifting up the puck — agreed?” Carignan asks. The captains agree.

The fun begins

On Saturday morning, players drove onto the ice to park for the tournament, passing the Rangeley Skating Club rink where families and teens skated. Proceeds from the tournament fund the club’s outdoor rinks, heated shack, free skates, hockey sticks and pucks.

Tournament games ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Teams atop their brackets advanced to quarterfinals, semifinals and championship games beginning at 9 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 8.

As play began, a wide range of abilities — and sizes — was evident, particularly among the men’s teams. Very large players and much smaller ones faced off and the atmosphere was congenial. After the U.S. and Canadian national anthems, a foghorn signaled the start and end of each 30-minute game and five-minute intermission.

Since shutting down in 2021 because of COVID-19, the tournament has battled the elements. Bitter cold in 2023 brought temperatures down to minus 26 degrees, followed by rain in 2024. This year delivered more cold, with temperatures in the teens Saturday and near or below zero Sunday. Ben Gagnon of Sanford and the Rangeley Selects, who played in the minus-26-degree weather, said, “Face coverings and goggles were required for the 10-minute halves, but still we froze.”

The Gavins of Massachusetts and Rangeley scored a deal on retro sweater shirts bearing the number 16. A few years ago, the number fit. This year, both the family and the tournament were celebrating 19 years. Diane Gavin said her sons, nephews, brothers-in-law and husband were all on the ice. She kept score and planned to cook an Italian meal for everyone after Saturday’s games.

Noonkester reunited with high school hockey friends from the Class of 2010, some living in Sanford and others in Lewiston. He said they often skated in his Sanford front yard as kids. Several of his teammates came from his “very competitive club hockey team” that played together at the University of Maine at Farmington from 2011 to 2015.

Codie Keene, whose Summit Homes team has won three of the past four tournaments, said some of his teammates traveled from Lewiston and Auburn. “We played hockey together from little kids all the way up. We’ve played competitive hockey our whole lives,” he said, noting that this year would be harder since his brother, “our star player,” was absent.

By late Saturday, the wind had teeth, pushing the wind chill on Haley Pond to about minus 3 degrees. With even colder temperatures expected Sunday, Carignan was asked if games would be played in 10 or 15-minute halves.

“Honestly they could be 5-minute halves,” she said.