Last week, the organizers of the 49th Munn Cup were in a tough spot, since the City of Thompson’s only working ice resurfacer broke down the evening before this three-day atom hockey tournament got underway Feb. 15.
“Everyone kind of knew it was broken, who was at the rink that night, and it was mass chaos,” said Thompson hockey mom Carlee Billiaert. “There were probably 30 to 40 people running around here trying to do things.”
Luckily, Billiaert had the presence of mind to call some athletics officials from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN) to see if they could spare their own equipment for a short period of time.
She eventually got hold of James Warren, the general manager of the Gilbert McDonald Arena in Nelson House, who gave the Munn Cup organizers permission to use their Zamboni almost immediately.
“Without a hesitation, a thought or a query, he was like ‘Yeah, no problem. You can come pick it up. It’s yours if you guys need it,’” said Billiaert.
After receiving the green light, atom A Thompson King Miners coach JR Beavis got his hands on a flatbed truck thanks to United Rentals employee Chris Hildebrandt and the two of them drove to Nelson House that very night, eventually arriving at the Gilbert McDonald Arena around 10:30 p.m.
Beavis said they returned to Thompson and dropped the working Zamboni off at the Thompson Regional Community Centre (TRCC) at half past midnight, giving the city employees just enough time to prep the machine for the Munn Cup’s first game at 10 a.m. Friday morning.
NCN’s Zamboni got plenty of use throughout the next three days of competition, with both the C.A. Nesbitt and Gordon Beard Arenas playing host to 16 different atom hockey teams from throughout Northern Manitoba.
“I think that kind of sums up what the Munn Cup is all about too,” said Billiaert. “It’s about building community and togetherness.”
Even though NCN’s Zamboni was back home in the Gilbert McDonald Arena as of Tuesday morning, Warren hopes that this spirit of cooperation continues to blossom between Nelson House and Thompson moving forward.
“That’s how a relationship starts,” he said. “Sometimes you give, sometime you take, but at the end of the day it benefits everybody and that’s kind of where we stood when we decided to let it go.”
However, the Manitoba RCMP also wanted to remind northerners to reserve dialling 911 for real emergencies. On the night of Feb. 14, they received a call from Nelson House from someone who was asking about where he could rent a Zamboni for an upcoming hockey tournament.
“We understand that in Canada, this could be an emergency to some,” read a Feb. 15 statement from the RCMP. “However this is not a valid reason to dial 911.”
According to a Feb. 20 Facebook post from the City of Thompson, the TRCC staff is still waiting to receive parts to fix their Zamboni, which means the C.A. Nesbitt and Gordon Beard Arenas will remain closed until further notice.
