Pond hockey

Pond hockey is a form of ice hockey very similar in its object and appearance to traditional ice hockey, but far simpler and designed to be played on part of a natural frozen body of water. The rink is 50-80% the size of a standard NHL-specification rink, and has no boards or glass surrounding it to add to the convenience of setting up and removing the rink (usually only a barrier of snow keeps the puck in play). In addition, because there are no protective barriers behind the goal to contain high errant shots, the top of the goal is far lower, in fact only slightly taller than the width of a puck, and the game more often than not does not have a formal goalie. Because of these differences, pond hockey places more emphasis on skating and puckhandling ability and less on shooting and checking. Non-competitive pond hockey is often played with no proper goals (shoes and customized pond hockey nets are often used instead), rinks of almost any size and no boards at all (even snow barriers).