{"id":480167,"date":"2026-02-17T07:44:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T07:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/480167\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T07:44:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T07:44:27","slug":"worlds-longest-hockey-game-near-edmonton-raises-over-1-million-for-cancer-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/480167\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s Longest Hockey Game near Edmonton raises over $1 million for cancer research"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World\u2019s Longest Hockey Game near Edmonton came to an end Monday with over a million dollars raised for cancer patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since Feb. 5, 40 players have been on the ice shooting and saving pucks on the ice to raise funds for cancer research and treatment in Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, we all have a reason we\u2019re playing this game form for me, it\u2019s for my dad, my aunt Rita, my late wife,\u201d said Brent Saik, organizer, of the charity event.<\/p>\n

Saik started the World\u2019s Longest Hockey Game in 2003 on his land in Sherwood Park, east of Edmonton. Saik says he\u2019s glad to see the event grow rapidly with over 800 volunteers this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably harder to make this lineup than it is to make an NHL lineup,\u201d Saik says. \u201cI have so many people that wanted to play and so many people that want to get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

After 11 consecutive days on the ice, the event wrapped up Monday raising more than a million dollars for cancer research and treatment in Alberta. Since 2003, the event has raised close to $10 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese treatments have been going to the U.S. forever. And now it\u2019s gonna be readily available for Canadians too. All Canadians not just Albertans,\u201d Saik added.<\/p>\n

\"\"Maria Niinimaa, flew in from Sweden to take part in the 2026 edition of the World\u2019s longest hockey game, which came to an end on Feb. 16, 2026, near Edmonton (CityNews)<\/p>\n

Maria Niinimaa, one of the participants in this year\u2019s game, flew in from Sweden.<\/p>\n

She says her family has had a lot of experience with cancer, unfortunately.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad is currently battling with that and I had breast cancer in 2003 so I got to do all the treatments,\u201d Niinimaa said.<\/p>\n

Niinimaa\u2019s brother Janne once played for the Edmonton Oilers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a hockey player, but I enjoyed playing every shift,\u201d Niinimaa said.<\/p>\n

While playing hockey outside has its own challenges, participants say it\u2019s a reminder of the hardships that cancer patients go through.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to push our bodies as far as we can to try to understand what cancer patients are trying to do as well,\u201d Saik said. \u201cAnd know that we can finish it which to us tells cancer patients you can finish this. We get our job done; you guys get your job done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The World\u2019s Longest Hockey Game near Edmonton came to an end Monday with over a million dollars raised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-480167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}