Special location for ball-hockey game

PITTSBURGH -- The top prospects for the 2012 NHL Draft didn't just to skate indoors Wednesday. They got to play ball hockey. On the iconic Roberto Clemente Bridge.

Nope, not your usual location for a pick-up hockey game.

The iconic bridge was the setting for a game of 4-on-4 between the prospects and players from the Pittsburgh Ice hockey program. The program is affiliated with the NHL's Hockey is For Everyone initiative.

Ryan Murray thought the level of competition among the kids -- average age was 8 years old -- was pretty good.

"We tied them," he said. "They had some skill over there, some good shots, some good speed. Goalies were good. They had good positioning out there. It was tough to score."

Another reason the prospects had trouble scoring could have been their choice of footwear. Mikhail Grigorenko wore black dress shoes, while Nail Yakupov wore flip flops.

"Guys didn't know it was casual," Alex Galchenyuk said. "Mikhail was trying to look good and Yaki [Yakupov] just came from the showers. Guess they didn't know they were playing hockey."

There also was the usual good-natured ribbing. Jacob Trouba started the game on the bench, and when the Pittsburgh Ice team scored the game's first goal, he looked at Murray and yelled, "minus-1."

Murray heard him, and had a response: "I told him he should change his curve because every ball he was shooting was going down the bridge. The coach down there was getting a workout running up and down trying to get the ball."

Contact Adam Kimelman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @NHLAdamK