At Southside Park, the goal can be many things. Often, it's an upturned bench, or two shoes spaced a few feet apart. It can also be a stack of empty beer cans. A two-by-four laid sideways. A snow shovel. A flat, wooden box with two puck sized holes. Occasionally, someone brings an actual hockey net.
Played under street lights that stay on until 10 p.m., it’s hockey at its simplest. “All you need is skates and a stick and maybe a puck, but most people have one of those anyways,” said Siri Devlin, recently graduated with a master’s degree from Montana State.
To the passerby intimidated by the fast pace of hockey games slicing simultaneously through the ice at Southside Park, fear not. Many a pond hockey career has begun at Southside, including Devlin’s.
After acquiring her mother’s old pair of hockey skates as an undergrad, Devlin began visiting the park with groups of friends, eventually gaining the confidence to join pick up games with strangers. “I kinda forced myself to learn how to skate just by playing and being motivated to do well and get the puck and help the team out, ” she said while taking a break from a Sunday game. “I can play pick up with most people now and not terribly humiliate myself”
Pickup games start literally, with everyone interested in playing throwing their sticks into a pile. One person will separate the sticks into two piles, and the pile from which a person picks up their stick determines their team. Games can last hours, so newcomers are openly welcomed to join in at any point.
Sometimes the score is kept, but winning isn’t really important. At Southside Park, the real goal is to have fun.