By Laura Mays

The 66th annual Langford Park Hockey Winter Classic tournament was held at the Langford Park Recreation Center on the last weekend of January.

This was first time in three years the tournament didn’t get iced.

After two years of weather ­extremes—way too cold followed by way too warm—Mother Nature must have felt guilty, as the 2025 edition had near perfect weather conditions.

The 2023 tourney was so bitterly cold that the game clocks kept freezing. Even iPhones kept in jacket pockets froze and threw off time keeping. In 2024, by contrast, pucks were dropped into the puddle that served as an ice hockey rink for only 10 days the entire season, and the Classic was cancelled.

In a stroke of great timing, the 2025 tournament was just after a few “artic freeze” days, so the ice rink was solid and pristine, but the sun shone and air temperatures were a moderate 25 to 30 degrees. While the wind blew cold enough to freeze the game scoring iPads on Saturday morning, most ­equipment functioned as expected.

The Winter Classic Hockey Tournament featured five Squirt C level teams: Langford Park as the host, joined by Minneapolis City of Lakes Titans, St. Paul’s Edgcumbe, the St. Paul DinoMights and Mounds View Irondale. The ­Langford Park Squirts had great success, first beating the ­DinoMights 11-0 and then topping Edgcumbe 8-1. This put them against Mounds View Irondale for the Championship on Sunday afternoon.

Come-from-behind drama

A confident Langford Park Squirts had their egos quickly checked as just five minutes into the first period they were down 3- 0.

The Squirts slowly regained their confidence as Trygg Mays registered Langford’s first goal with a slap shot. Two minutes later, Jack Bergerson made it 3-2 on a pass from Nathan Heesch. Then with one minute remaining in the first period, Liam Anderson tied it up at 3-3. One period down, and this was turning into an exciting Championship game.

Langford Park kept the momentum going by sinking two more goals in the second period, thanks to Ray Golden-Lundquist and Owen Anderson.

The third period was equally thrilling as Jack Bergerson, Ray Golden-Lundquist and Liam Anderson all found the back of the net again.

Mounds View Irondale put up one more goal.

But Langford Park answered with Bergerson nailing a hat trick with his third goal and George ­Reese IV sliding a final shot across the line with 55 seconds left. That gave Langford Park the championship by a final score of 10-4.

A star of this game was Langford Park goalie Drew Ward, who kept calm after those first stressful minutes in the first period. He had the added disadvantage of the sun setting directly in his line of vision for much of the game. But he and his teammates showed their grit and determination and lifted the championship trophy high at the game’s conclusion.

The 66th Winter Classic weekend also included a “Mite Jamboree” on Saturday afternoon where approximately 102 players ages 6- to 8 scrimmaged across four smaller rinks. And Sunday afternoon brought in more than 80 skaters ages 3 to 5 for the “Mini-Mite Scramble.”

Local food vendors shine

Off the ice, we’d be remiss to not highlight the concessions. This year’s favorite foods included the Winter Classic Brat, a special recipe custom concocted for this tournament by the grocers at Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market. That food market also supplied the hamburgers, grilled by hockey dad Ryan Courtney at rinkside, that were so popular they sold out on Saturday.

Meanwhile, tasty food complements to the grilled food were chili or macaroni and cheese generously donated by Colossal Café. There was also cocoa for kids and for adults steaming cups of coffee donated by Dogwood coffee, naturally their Zamboni flavor to complement the hockey being played.

A special thanks to the St. Paul Parks and Recreation staff for allowing the hockey and booster club organization to use the Langford Park building for the entire weekend. 

Laura Mays is president of Langford Park Hockey’s board of directors.

Photo cutline: The Langford Squirts emerged as champions in the 66th annual Langford Park Hockey Winter Classic tournament. Photo by Jay Ward.