Michigan Tech is hosting a Sled Hockey Clinic Saturday
HOUGHTON, Mich. – Michigan Tech Recreation and the Sledcats are hosting a free Sled Hockey Clinic and Scrimmage on Saturday (Nov. 5) at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. The event begins at Noon. The clinic is open to all ages and abilities and equipment will be provided.
Clinic instruction will be provided by members of the Sledcats sledhockey team from Marquette, and scrimmages will be played. You can also come to spin around the ice and enjoy a new way to ice skate. It will be fun for people with and without disabilities!
Other partners for the event include SAIL Disability Network of the Upper Peninsula, ELK (Equipment Loans of the Keweenaw), Michigan Tech Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology, and U.P. Adventure Company.
Sled hockey (also referred to as sledge hockey and para ice hockey) was invented in Stockholm, Sweden in the early 1960s by a group of Swedes who, despite their physical disability, wanted to continue playing hockey. It was introduced at the Lillehammer 1994 Winter Games and the US won its first Paralympic medal in the sport—a gold medal—at the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games.
Sled hockey follows most of the typical ice hockey rules with the exception of some of the equipment. Players sit in specially designed sleds that sit on top of two hockey skate blades. There are two sticks for each player, instead of one, and the sticks have metal picks on the butt end for players to propel themselves.
There's no better place than Houghton—the birthplace of professional hockey—to experience this unique sport.