World’s Longest Ever Hockey Game Underway

It has been more than a year in the making, but at 7pm on Thursday 22nd June, the doors of the arena opened for an ice-hockey game unlike any before. In an attempt to break the Guinness World Record, the game was to run for 24 hours a day for 11 consecutive days, making a total of 251 hours of play.

The 11-Day Power Play event was founded by Mike and Amy Lesakowski, after Amy herself faced a battle with cancer. The avid hockey fans decided to do something big and bold in order to raise money for Roswell Park Cancer Institute. What better way to do it than to hold a mammoth hockey game?

The game started with an opening ceremony at 8pm, with Mike and Amy making speeches with the major of Buffalo, Bryan Brown. At around 9.01pm on the Thursday, the puck was dropped, and the game officially began. The first hour of play was also called by Buffalo Sabres stars Rick Jeaneret and Rob Ray.

I bet you're wondering by now how a 24-hour non-stop ice hockey game works? The game is being played by 40 volunteer players, two teams of 20, many of who have never played hockey in front of a crowd before. Each player must do a total of nineteen 4 ½ hour shifts, with rest times of between four and nine hours off the pitch. The game follows the same rules as the National Hockey League.

To put this into perspective, the entire UK Golf Open tournament involving 156 players, in which Dustin Johnson is current favorite with 8/1 odds on BetStars, lasts for only four days. The Power Play hockey game is s serious grind!

It gets even more extreme. Players live on site at the Harbor Centre in makeshift dormitory rooms. They even have their own team of medical advisors on hand, the Excelsior Orthopedics, though word is the vast majority of injuries and treatments have been foot-related, usually involving taping up blisters.

Two players are currently out of play at the half way mark, one from each team, and other players are making up the play with extra hours on top of their shifts. Even for fit and well players, the epic hockey game provides a solid physical and mental endurance test, and one which will continue as the game progresses. Wednesday 28th June marked the half way point.

Far more important than the results of the match, or even the gameplay itself, is the amount of money being raised for Roswell Park. The Lesakowski couple surpassed their original goal of $1 million dollars by the opening day of the event, and money is still being raised through merchandise and beverage sales, as well as donations, which are still being taken. You can donate here.

We hope to see the 11-Day Power Play make even more money to battle cancer, and think the players and all those who have donated deserve praise and respect.

Tweets by @eurohockey