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Posted: April 05, 2008 3:37AM; Updated: September 15, 2008 9:24AM

by Richard Graham

 

The weather was fine, but the Professional Inline Hockey Association’s match up between the Colorado Springs Thunder and the Westminster Blizzard made for an irresistibly bad headline pun.

 

The Thunder took advantage of several Blizzard penalties in game one, with CJ Yoder making the Blizzard pay. Yoder, one of inline hockey’s finest ambassadors ever, was less than a gracious host for the Blizzard, scoring at several power play goals to open up a tight first game. The Thunder won game one “soundly,” 5-3, and sent the Blizzard some global warming in game two, winning 8-3.

 

“Yoder, from Yingling and Ciolli. They ought to just tape that and play it over and over,” said Josh Abby, a player for the Thunder's minor team.

 

I was impressed with my very first PIHA experience. The Tour Inline Hockey Arena was fantastic. Rink manager Bill Mulhern filled me in one the arena’s grassroots program, and John Ingrum (a son of the facility’s owner Jeff Ingrum, who owns seven roller skating rinks in Colorado Springs, Denver and Kansas City), entertained me with stories of certain players perhaps to be named later.

 

Jeff Ingrum is a sports whirlwind, and the creator of Colorado’s Skating Rink Inline Hockey Association, Ingrum Printing, Skate Mall and a television sports production company, ISPN, which broadcasts all high school sports and inline hockey in the state.

 

The Tour Inline Hockey Arena, in northern Colorado Springs, is the state’s only rink solely dedicated to inline hockey. It cost $2.1 million to build in 2002, seats 250 comfortably, and hosts several different championship events and tournaments. Its grassroots program draws new players with the offer of FREE skates. It doesn’t get much better than that. The arena also includes a fine pro shop, photo center, restaurant and bar.

 

With more PIHA ownership groups like this, it would seem that the league has a bright future indeed, despite the weather… and corny puns.