Sweet Laxin Tournament Review

This is the third tournament review for this summer's tournaments. This is for the Sweet Laxin' tournament in Bridgewater, New Jersey. This is my second time at Sweet Laxin'.

Sweet Laxin' does most things pretty well but has a couple bumps as well.

The tournament is spread out over various locations in the area. Some folks are put off by that but it doesn't really bother me. I am fine with spreading people around. We had plenty of parking and access was good. There was a little walk to the fields but nothing out of hand. The organizers do an excellent job of having volunteers around to direct traffic.

Unfortunately, there was a field issue at our facility. One of the fields was significantly undersized. When that happens, usually the goal is moved closer to the end line and the restraining area shrinks. The organizers instead used a full-sized restraining area that was way too close to the face-off X. Play on that field had a serious problem for every faceoff.

The play format worked well. There were pools for each dvision and A & B flights for most age groups. Teams play maybe three games on Saturday and then get seeded into Sunday's semifinals followed by finals and consols. The organizers seemed to get the pools pretty much right because Sunday's games had some absolute crackers. Win or lose, teams really like having a good competitive game or two on their way out.

The concessions were adequate if unspectacular. Unfortunately grills were not allowed.

I give the tournament a B+ overall.