Our last hockey net was of the $49 PVC variety. The net did itself proud for 4 years until we laid a small ice rink in the backyard and the kids performed an experiment destined for failure – real pucks, 12f temps and… cheap PVC. Makes a nice cracking sound. I checked around the web for “homemade hockey net” and found some nice options for building a stronger PVC net, most were not full size and the cost of the PVC brings you into the realm of cheap metal nets at the sporting good stores. The best build your own Hockey Net I found: http://www.sceneandheard.ca/archive/V2_01/focus_net.htm
So I was prepared to build the net with wood, just like I did with my brother and sister on our patio. Freeze the patio, shoot on a ramshackle wood net, hope you didn’t hit the sliding glass door, find all kinds of pucks 20ft away in the bushes every spring. 2×4’s here we come! On the way to Home Depot we stopped at Sports Authority to pick up some hockey sticks and tape. I was checking out the hockey nets and commented that we could get the shiny metal “NHL Approved!” model if they were ever on sale.
So of course I walked right by a sign “half price off all athletic nets”. The sign was not on the display models but over in the corner, on the bottom shelf daring anyone to find it. Half price! Nice! Just like the Franklin soccer goal we’d picked up at the same Sports Authority store 6 months prior. So we bought a Franklin Professional street and roller hockey goal with Roll a Goal Technology(tm) for $59.99. The kids put it together in about 45 minutes (lacing the net took 25+). The rollers are nice, if the kids ever put it away… and the cost was less than PVC and similar to scrap wood. The net and results! (ouch) below.
