Hockey Players Beat Summer Heat

A smart group of ladies has been making the right moves since June. They figured out the best way to cool down from the sweltering summer heat and keep their beach bodies in shape: ice hockey.

The Concord Women's Summer Hockey League (CWSHL) to be specific.

The league – in its 12^th summer – has held games each Sunday since June at Valley Sports on Concord. Games run until Aug. 29.

Six teams – Vegas, Purple, White, Orange, Teal and Maroon – play three games each week. Vegas took on the Maroon team this past Sunday.

Nancy Lebleuce, a defensive player on team Maroon, said that she's been on the ice since she was 5-years old.

"It's a fun thing to play," Lebleuce said.

This is Lebleuce's second summer playing in this League.

Lebleuce's teammate, Cara Voutselas, a forward, said that she's been playing ice hockey for seven years. This is her sixth year in the Concord league.

"I took figure skating (when I was a child)," Voutselas said.

But soon she realized that her feet "wanted to go fast," so Voutselas switched to ice hockey.

"I love it. All my friends are here," she said before touching out onto the ice. "It's really good exercise. It's like pick-up, but more organized.

"It's completely all about fun, and we're beyond that competitiveness."

The game was beginning. There are three 17-minute periods with no-stoppage time.

The freshly zambonied ice was about to get shredded.

After the puck was dropped by the referee, the girls went at it, and down, as the ref was clinging to the left side of the wall to hold herself up.

Then two substitutions from the bench slipped on while two players slipped out.

Communication was important, as teammates were shouting to one another, helping out with whom to pass the puck to.

Vegas went on top 1-0   with a goal at 2 minutes, 20 seconds.

Then the first period ended. A quick huddle and the second period began.

A fast shot by Maroon and the game was tied, 1-1.

Players were skating fiercely, trying to attack their opponents' sticks and steal the puck, weaving their way as best as they could along the ice. Bodies were pushed up against walls, trapped in corners and laid out on the rink.

Sticks were lost at times too.

In the third period, at roughly 12:20, Maroon scored, taking the lead 2-1.

The ladies raced along the ice but no one scored again.

Maroon took the victory.

On the ice next for the 8 p.m. game between Purple and White was Linda Koemig, a Purple player. She watched almost the entire Vegas-Maroon game, standing next to the ice.

A 12-year player and children's ice hockey coach, when asked what position she plays, Koemig joked, "I play them all, not very well."

She really didn't seem to care how she performs; she plays ice hockey because she honestly loves the sport.

How much longer will she take to the ice?

"'Till my body tells me I can't," Koemig replied with a wide smile.