About 60 visually-impaired hockey players from across Canada and the U.S. are competing this weekend at the second annual Courage Canada National Blind Hockey Tournament at Toronto's Ryerson University.
Billed as the only blind hockey tournament in the world, the three-day competition features athletes with 10 per cent of their vision or less. Instead of using a traditional puck, teams play with an adapted one that is bigger, slower and makes noise as it travels across the ice.
"The game is played with traditional hockey rules with only a few modifications to assist with game flow and player safety, but remains fundamentally the same great game Canadians love," Courage Canada, a registered charity, said in a statement.
The tournament kicked off Friday with the help of Minister of State for Sport Bal Gosal, who helped lead the opening ceremony.
@BalGosal @MikeSullivanMP @CourageCanada #blind #hockey this weekend at Mattamy Centre join us !!! pic.twitter.com/w8L6N1Pu76
— bonnie taylor (@tornadotaylor_i) March 21, 2014
Watching the 2014 National Blind Hockey Tournament. Rooting for my cousin @MarkDeMontis and Team Ontario. #courage pic.twitter.com/JKc34TNAgD
— Robbie DeMontis (@RobbieDeMontis) March 22, 2014
The 2014 @CourageCanada National Blind Hockey Tournament presented by @a11ymedia takes place this weekend @MattamyAC pic.twitter.com/goqWc2cdKv
— Mark DeMontis (@MarkDeMontis) March 20, 2014
The puck drop for the gold-medal game is set to take place at 1:45 p.m. on Sunday.
