Lakeview Arena in Marquette a Kraft Hockeyville finalist

VOTE FOR LAKEVIEW ARENA BY CLICKING HERE.

By @MichaelCaples –

The ten finalists for Kraft Hockeyville USA 2016 have been selected, and Lakeview Arena is on the list.

Announced today on NBC prior to the Flyers vs. Penguins game, Lakeview Arena in Marquette is one of ten hockey rinks across the country winning at least $10,000 for arena upgrades.

Lakeview Arena is now in the running for the Kraft Hockeyville grand prize – $150,000 and the opportunity to host a NHL preseason game televised on NBC Sports Network.

The first round of public voting will take place from Tuesday, April 12 through Thursday, April 14 at KraftHockeyville.com.

Here is one of the reader submissions that landed Lakeview Arena on the Top 10 list, submitted by ‘Hoenke’ – if anyone has any more info on the submission, please let MiHockey know.

The roof leaks, the boards and glass are worn, the compressor is tired so that the beginning of the period has a slow puck plowing through water. And yet, and yet…………. Hanging from the ceiling are over 60 banners with state and national championships and runners-up in all levels of junior hockey boys and girls, and five state championships and 4 runners up in high school hockey, including the longest game in high school history with eight overtimes of eight minutes resulting in a tie called at midnight. Northern Michigan University played here when they won their Division 1 NCAA national title. Marquette and Lakeview Arena located in the center of the far northern remote Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the UP, with five months of winter ( or more ), 12 months of hockey, and sparsely populated with Yoopers. Tough people for whom hockey is THE sport. The UP is the birthplace of professional hockey . People who embrace the sport and embody the best of the its values — toughness, persistence, humility, teamwork. People who love physical hockey but adore skating, passing, and puck movement. How can this town of 20,000 , located 180 miles from any city bigger than it, continue to compete? Weekend road trips 8 hours south to Detroit to find the competition, or Chicago , or Wisconsin and Minnesota, to places where each suburb with all of its advantages and multiple rinks and population perhaps as large at the whole UP, are just part of the expectation to play the great sport. The attitude is always “we can compete, we can win, we belong here, we are Yoopers”. Even when they aren’t as strong as the other team, the attitude is the same. The kids grow up, their kids play hockey, as adults they carry forth the lessons learned playing the greatest sport on earth of toughness, durability, persistence, teamwork, humility, and they embody the values in their lives. They work in the mines, or they have to move away for work and try to return, they go to West Point and fight in Afghanistan, they become doctors and mechanics and teachers. And hockey remains in them. A community that loves hockey. When the state championship is won, the police and fire meet the returning bus miles out of town, escorting it sirens wailing past lines of people in the streets, ending at that tired old rink. What would winning this contest mean to this isolated rural community with such history, such passion, such a legacy from hockey? Everything. Everything.