Lake Fenton Winter Classic to Change Venue

The bad news is the won't be played near the on Lake Fenton as originally planned.

The good news is the hockey tournament will still happen on Feb. 18 and 19.

After reviewing the ice conditions outside the Moose Lodge, tournament organizer Sean Lapham said the ice has been determined to be unsafe. However, there is currently four inches of ice on Barnum Lake near , where the tournament will be moved.

"We have been granted permission from the owner to utilize their public access," Lapham posted on Facebook. "My ice rink building crew has pumps and sprayers so that we can start building more ice with the cold days."

Lapham said he had trouble sleeping because of anxiety to whether the tournament would happen before, but now that's it's a go, he said he's still not sleeping.

But that's because he doesn't have time with all the last minute changes taking place.

Since there is no snow for walls, crews will us two by six inch lumber to make short boundaries. Night games also had to be eliminated because of the weight of the lights. Friday night games will be cancelled and there will be two games Saturday and one Sunday before the playoffs on Sunday.

“It was basically written off a week ago,” Lapham said. “Now we see a silver lining and with a lot of hard work from dedicated hockey players, we are going to make this happen. It is 100 percent what I wanted? We’ll try.”

The Moose Lodge will host a registration party at 7 p.m. Friday.

The first year tournament was originally scheduled tournament days of Jan. 27 - Jan. 29, but was .