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Saranac Lake’s holiday hockey tradition

The Red Storm women smile after their morning skate. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)
Jason Heath, right, and Eric Bennett put on the brakes along the boards. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)
Erin Farmer lines up a shot. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)
Above, the men gather for their group photo before they battled it out Thursday afternoon. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

SARANAC LAKE — Every year on the day after Christmas, the Saranac Lake Civic Center plays host to the high school’s alumni hockey games.

In a way, it’s like a family reunion that is starting to span more than just one generation of Saranac Lake High School graduates who played for both the boys’ and girls’ hockey programs there.

This year’s event took place on Thursday. The action kicked off with the women’s alumni game with the men then stepping on the ice sheet.

There were plenty of smiles worn by the participants throughout both games, and although most of the players were arguably a stride or two slower than they were during their high school days, they certainly brought glimmers of that competitive edge to the rink.

After all, some of the best hockey players who have ever laced up the skates for the school show up each year as they make their annual day-after-Christmas pilgrimage to the rink that they will always call “home ice.”

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