March 29, 2024

MEMORIAL ARENA WAS SHINNY SHRINE AS 75-YEAR HOME TO HOCKEY IN HEART OF MUSKOKA

Photos and story Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

BRACEBRIDGE — The last league and shinny games at the Memorial Arena last night were as stark a difference as dreams of making the NHL one day.

One minute you’re on top of the world like the U18 Local League champions and the next you’re a beer leaguer hauling your bag onto the ice like the Muskoka Originals who got to claim bragging rights as the last team to play at the Bracebridge Memorial Arena.

And so it was March 28, 2024, when the Reds beat the Blacks 5-2 in a one final good game for in-house supremacy.

The Reds got an early 4-1 lead before the Blacks mounted a bit of a comeback that in the end came up short in a valiant effort that saw both teams end their seasons on a high note.

For most of these late teams this game will be their last official hockey hurrah.

Some college hockey for a few and maybe distant shot as a walk-on with an even better club can only be a fantasy. Next season they will be the ones traipsing into the rink unbeknownst a lobby full of celebrating family and minor hockey players at the new Muskoka Lumber Arena cross town.

The Teal won the U11 title in the game before over the White.

**The Reds beat the Blacks 5-2 in the last league hockey game played last night at Bracebridge Memorial Arena. And it was fittingly well-played game befitting the occassion.**

But for this night the Reds and Blacks gave a deserving end of play the likes of had been seen for 75 years since the rink became home to hockey in the Heart of Muskoka.

There have been many more games played better, but suitably from a competitive point of view it was a spirited contest worthy of being called the last good game to be played in this great hockey shrine.

With all the teenage testosterone they could muster, the local lads put on quite a decent show.

And one their loyal families and fans loved every minute of as kids ran around the rink and grandparents sat oh so comfortably on eight rows of bench seats in the old barn — most who had done the same for years.

And they all still enjoyed it.

The new rink will never replace the old.

Shiny isn’t shinny like at Memorial Arena. It’s one of the last great hockey venues in the land of pre-fabs and Timmies.

No, you’ll never get as a close to the action and feel the same as in this dated, but quaint block bowl.

The dank old dressing rooms are all-Canadian all-stars tucked under the block bleachers.

Gone quickly this week are the last signage vestiges of the past that began in 1949 with Alf Goodfellow pushing an old oil barrel around the rink to flood the ice with boiling water.

Hockey at its best then and again last night.

So long and farewell to a tremendous hockey home and friend.

Send us your hockey memories of the Memorial Arena to [email protected]