Copper Country Cougars’ Hanna Impola shoots against Gino’s Restaurant defenseman Sarah Hockings during the 37th annual Copper Country Oldtimers hockey tournament at Dee Stadium on Saturday, March 19, 2022, in Houghton. (Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — Starting Thursday evening at the Dee Stadium and the Houghton County Arena, the 39th Annual Copper Country Oldtimer’s Hockey Tournament will be hitting its stride before the Calumet Colosseum opens its doors to games Friday through Sunday.

The first game of the tournament will be a 60-plus game featuring the Calumet Generals and Traverse City 60-plus at 5 p.m. at Dee Stadium.

Tournament director Tom Pintar is excited to see how this year’s event will go. He said that the interest in the tournament remains high year after year.

“The league, the personnel in the league over the years here, just keeps going,” he said. “Commitment from the league players, (and) most importantly, the teams that come and play, 39 years.”

Pintar said that excitement for the tournament is so widespread by this point that he receives calls as early as August from teams looking for a way to join the fun.

“We’re getting phone calls from new teams in August, and we’re getting phone calls in July, teams wanting to come in,” Pintar said. “At that time, it’s tough to say yes or no, because it’s one of the deals where I’ve started planning this tournament in August over many years.

“​​Everything that I did not plan. New teams calling me, ‘We want in. We want in.’ ‘Give me some time. Give me a month or two.’ I get them in by January.”

Teams come from as far away as Cokato, Minnesota, or even the Twin Cites, in the other direction, from Traverse City, and even the Detroit area, to play in the tournament year in and year out. The tournament has added four new teams this year, and two new divisions as part of the expansion of the weekend.

The tournament committee has split the Women’s Division in half, with four teams competing in the Women’s Elite, and four more in the Women’s Novice. They have also added a 70-plus Division as well. The 70-plus will only have four teams this year, but Pintar admits the division could grow in the future.

“We split that women’s division into two and then we added a 70 and over,” he said. “Next year, that 70 and over could get bigger. We’re only going to go with four teams. We have a few to pick from downstate between Troy, Lansing, and Flint. Those teams aren’t even here.”

Pintar jokes that there may not be room to add any more teams in the future. However, that seems to be the best problem the committee could have.

“We are at a point right now where I have enough time for three more games in Calumet on Saturday morning. That is it,” he said. “I have enough to put five more games at the Dee and Houghton County on Friday, cut you’re starting a tournament at 9 a.m. on Friday morning, which can be done.

“I don’t want to go that route because it involves teams coming into talent earlier, or we would have to look at changing our format, the length of our games, bringing our games down in time to 22-minute halves or 23-minute halves. But, then it becomes like a puppy mill where you’re just spitting out games.”

As they look towards the future of the tournament, game length could become an issue if they keep adding new teams to the mix.

“Then maybe those games aren’t for the player,” said Pintar. “There’s different things you can to the game. Like, it’s runtime the entire game. There’s always options available.”

Splitting the Women’s Division up this year was a major focus of the committee. In the past, the division had six teams, with three teams clearly stronger than the other three. This year, those three stronger teams will have a fourth team in their division, and likewise for the three weaker teams, which should make for better games for everyone involved.

“Initially that division has been a six team division, and you have three good teams, three girls teams that just want to play in the tournament,” Pintar said. “For those three teams that are down, they might have fun, but now they’re by themselves. They have their own division, four teams that are novice. They’ll have a much more enjoyable time playing against all the girls that are their same caliber.”

With players in the tournament ranging from 21 years old to over 70, the weekend shows how hockey is a sport that be played at all skill levels and all ages.

“Hockey is one of those where you can play that for life,” Pintar said. “I mean, you can play basketball for life. You can play softball. They have that many people that are playing hockey, and especially going into their 70s, and some of them are pretty good.”

The Oldtimer’s tournament could not exist without the support of the community. Pintar said that the organization cannot thank the sponsors enough for all that they have done and given to help put the league and the tournament together every year.

“We don’t give enough credit to Northern Driveline, to the Suomi restaurant, really, from our bottom of our heart,” he said. “We see that when this book (the tournament program) comes out, I always go in there and I start looking. I’m just amazed at the support from the local businesses. It’s pretty impressive.”

Games start at Dee Stadium Thursday at 5 p.m. At the Houghton County Arena, games start Thursday at 6 p.m. On Friday, games in Calumet begin at 10 a.m. with the final game set for 7:29 p.m. Friday at Dee Stadium, games start at 3 p.m. and there will be back-to-back games starting at 7 p.m. that feature teams in the 21-plus Division. Houghton County Arena will also feature games starting at 3 p.m.

On Saturday, games at Dee Stadium and Houghton County Arena will begin at 9 a.m. At the Colosseum, games will begin at 11:40 a.m. with a key matchup between the Red Team and Bill’s B&B Bar in the 21-plus Division.

Sunday, games begin at 9 a.m. at all three rinks. The 21-plus Division Championship will be at 3:40 p.m. at the Houghton County Arena.