ATKINSON NAMED ?WORLD POND HOCKEY CHAMPION?
Puckmasters coach leads Merrimack alumni team to annual New Brunswick Tournament title.
February 9, 2004
PLASTER ROCK, New Brunswick: Puckmasters personal coach, Rob Atkinson and his team the Boston Danglers, have been crowned World Pond Hockey Champions. The four Merrimack College alumni earned the title at this weekend?s annual World Pond Hockey Championships held at the New Brunswick village of Plaster Rock.
Sponsored by Labatt and held on Roulston Lake, the tournament was established in 2002 to raise money for local charities and promote the village of Plaster Rock as a tourist destination. Over 4,000 spectators and media attended the three-day event which saw 80 teams from both the United States and Canada participate in a series of 30-minute four-on-four games.
?The event was awesome, we had a great time,? says Atkinson a native of Moncton, New Brunswick. ?The attention was so surreal, and the people there were so nice. It really was pretty wild.?
The site featured 20 rinks sized approximately 150? X 75?. Forty of the 80 teams played games simultaneously, with each team guaranteed at least five round robin games (two on Friday and three on Saturday). The single elimination metal round was held Sunday with the two teams participating in the championship tilt seeing action in a total of five games throughout the day.
Atkinson and his squad which included Cooper Naylor, Mark Cornforth, and Mark Goble, won ten straight and did not lose a game throughout the weekend. Their toughest test came in the semi-final round on Sunday against a gritty squad from Washington?a game in which they won 18-17 by holding off a strong second half come-back attempt. The team waltzed through the championship game 24-7 to claim the trophy.
A former captain at Hockey East?s Merrimack College, Atkinson is no stranger to championships as prior to college he led his Vernon Lakers of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League (BCJHL) to a Canadian National Junior A Championship in 1990. Atkinson played three years of professional hockey following graduation from Merrimack: one season for the Geleen Smoke Easters of the Netherlands Elite League and two seasons with the Mobile Mystics of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL).
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