Topeka hockey fans enjoy last match at downtown ice rink before it closes for the season
It was a chilly 15 degrees Monday night as the staff for the CoreFirst Ice Rink in Downtown's Evergy Plaza made their preparations for a final employee appreciation night of pond hockey.
Running a small ice resurfacer around the ring, event manager Dylan Tyler and his staff did what they do best — scraping away loose ice and bringing out specialty goals as local hockey enthusiasts started to show up.
Since December, pickup games of pond hockey, which is similar to regular hockey only with fewer players, wooden goals, no goalies and a general rule to keep the puck on the ice, started to become a routine for Topekans who longed for a chance to pick up their sticks and play in town.
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Many who came out have played for past professional teams in town, including the Scarecrows, Tarantulas, Roadrunners and, most recently, the Topeka Pilots, which left midseason in 2020. Members of the Topeka Pilots and other Topekans still play as the Topeka Kings and Topeka Scarecrows in Kansas City, where ice rinks are more plentiful and offer leagues to keep their skills in check.
Lance Quilling and his brother, Brad Quilling, played for Topeka teams after moving to the area from southwest Kansas, where the closest place to play was Denver. After playing in college, Lance said he continued to play for the local teams before they shut down.
Topeka's downtown ice rink, which opened in November and closed last weekend, gave them an opportunity to skate again without traveling far to do so.
"Without some of the hockey guys in Topeka, I don't know how possible (the rink) would have been," said Tyler. "We need the people that knew how to know how to skate to be our skate monitors, because you can't have just anybody out there trying to help people."
Preparing to get on the ice, Valerie Jinenez, who was sporting an Edmonton Oilers jersey, helped her friend Kylee Fine, who recently moved to Topeka, with the gear and padding.
"I've never really played a lot until I met her," said Fine. "It became a bigger part of our lives when she moved here, and we just kind of followed it wherever we could."
Jinenez, who is from Edmonton, Canada, was able to learn at outdoor rinks that are set up through local YMCA organizations. Up north, hockey is just as popular as basketball or football is here, so infrastructure and support are available to sustain ice rinks year round.
"I really hope this is going to help, you know, bring more awareness and attention to (ice skating and hockey)," said Jinenez. "This could be really good for the community. I think it's a great time, you know, not just for people who want to play hockey, but just going out there, learning ... get your families involved and all that."
Although the ice rink in Topeka has closed for the season, the popularity of the sport persists through such community-supported Facebook pages as Topeka Adult Hockey League and Shawnee County Ice Rink.
Lance said he hopes continuing the discussion will help further expand interest in creating an ice rink that would be more than a seasonal popup.
"This is something to think about, too," said Lance. "You know, like even (Topeka), we're the largest city around this area without ice. Like even Saint Joe, that's like 71,000 (population), and they have a rink that they're able to sustain."
"So I know the want is there, we just got to get the county on board. We tried and got some momentum, and then something else happens, and so we're really hoping this time it will last."
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Hockey matches at Evergy Plaza gives locals outlet without travel
