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Next weekend will bring hockey fans the 2010 U.S. Pond Hockey Championships. The event will take place from January 22-24, 2010 in Lake Nokomis, Minnesota. The event has been featured in Sports Illustrated, and is one that takes fans back to the roots of the sport.

On Golden Ponds
(from Sports Illustrated, January 30, 2006)

...there are no goalies in this four-on-four tournament, whose 116 teams this year includes NHL alumni, New York City firemen and slobs with smiles like half-emptied ice cube trays. Every one of these players was required between games to shovel one of the 25 rinks set up on Lake Calhoun. This fleet of human Zambonis included Brian Bellows, who amassed 1,022 points in an NHL career that included 10 seasons in Minnesota, where he often stunned locals by playing in pickup pond games between his North Stars games. "I still love it," says Bellows. "It takes you right back to being a kid."

Want to know more about pond hockey? You can join the event's Facebook page, and you can watch the award winning 2008 documentary, "Pond Hockey."