Photo by Addy Green (@photosbyaddygreen) / Cypress Creek Hockey Facebook
The concept of packing up the car and heading to a Sunday of high school ice hockey didn’t exist during my days as a local youth.
But the Lightning Community & Hockey Development program has changed that. Their programs and training centers have provided opportunity and given life to one of the fastest rising sports in the area. It feels like there are more hockey pucks and fewer baseball cleats laying around the house in 2024. Things feel different now.
Now I’m on 275, wheels pointed at AdventHealth Center Ice, gearing up for the LHSHL Lightning Cup Playoffs the best way I know how: with the Top Gun soundtrack at an obnoxious volume.
The day is loaded with four games and eight teams, all vying for a spot in the free-to-the-public semifinals at AMALIE Arena. I had no idea what to expect. But what ensued was a perfect Sunday bottle of wholesome nostalgia and unquestionable fun. Here are our sights and sounds from a day at the Lightning Cup Playoffs.
A game-viewing experience unlike any other
The first thing you notice walking into the AdventHealth Center Ice complex is that it’s massive. There are ice rinks everywhere you turn. And on a day in which eight high school teams and a free skate are on the docket, it’s a lot of action. Just when you think you’ve seen all the hockey this place has to offer, there’s another rink on the other side of another wall with two more squads behind the curtain.
Luckily, at the center of it all, is a glorious communal food haven: Top Shelf Sports Lounge. It’s here where you can perch yourself atop the bar, grab a tuna bowl if you please (not a hot dog, a tuna bowl), and get your bearings. To the right, you can plop yourself down in the vertical stadium seating to catch Manatee fight off a late Palmetto run. On the other side, you can hang up top and watch Plant High attempt a comeback against lights-out contender Steinbrenner. You also have the option to head downstairs to take in the action up close from the glass. Perhaps the best seats of the afternoon, though, landed in a nook right outside Top Shelf, a twofer wing where you can watch the high school games and a beer league at the same time. You’d be hard-pressed to find a viewing experience that allows you to watch BOTH Plant v. Steinbrenner and Rum Runner v. Puck Norris, but here we were. Two for the price of none.