There are nights behind the lens when I’m simply doing my job — tracking the puck, chasing the light, hunting for that split-second expression that tells the whole story of a play. And then there are nights like January 30th at Sudbury Arena, when I put my camera to my eye and realize I’m not just photographing a hockey game. I’m documenting something that genuinely matters.

The 2026 Fire & Ice Charity Hockey Game was one of those nights.

Every year, local police officers from the Greater Sudbury Police Service (GSPS) lace up their skates and face off against firefighters from the Greater Sudbury Fire Service (GSFS) in what has become one of this city’s most beloved community events. On the surface, it’s a hockey game. But from the moment I walked through the doors at 5:30 p.m., I knew this was something far bigger than the final score.

This event raises money for Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer — NOFCC — a Sudbury-based non-profit that provides financial, emotional, and educational support to families dealing with childhood cancer across Northern Ontario. In just the past two years alone, the Fire & Ice game has raised more than $52,000. In 2025, over $32,000 was donated with 100% of proceeds from more than 1,800 tickets sold going directly to families in need. Those aren’t just numbers. Those are families keeping the lights on while sitting bedside at sick kids.

The Scene Before the Puck Dropped

Arriving Early to Find the Story

As a sports photographer, I’ve learned that the best images often happen before the game even starts. Walking into Sudbury Arena that evening, the atmosphere was already electric. Families were streaming in, kids were getting their faces painted, vendors lined the concourse, and the smell of arena popcorn hung in the air like it always does — that perfect, nostalgic scent of community gatherings.

I always arrive early to events like this. It gives me a chance to walk the space, assess the lighting, identify the angles I want to work throughout the night, and — maybe most importantly — absorb the energy of the room before the action starts. A full arena before puck drop has its own kind of tension and excitement, and I wanted to capture that.

The pre-game scene at Fire & Ice had layers I don’t always get at a regular hockey game. There were uniformed officers and firefighters warming up on the ice — people whose day jobs involve an entirely different kind of intensity — and yet here they were, laughing, ribbing each other, adjusting shin pads and helmet straps. That juxtaposition is gold for a photographer. The humanity of it. The levity.

I set up near the glass early to grab warm-up shots, watching the GSPS side look particularly motivated. They were aiming for a third straight championship win, and you could feel it in the way they were skating hard even during casual drills. The firefighters had that underdog swagger. The whole thing made for a compelling pregame story before anyone had even dropped a puck.

Shooting the Game: The Technical Side of Charity Hockey

Finding Light in a Community Arena

Let me talk shop for a moment, because the technical challenges of shooting in a community arena like Sudbury Arena are real, and I know a lot of aspiring sports photographers in Northern Ontario are reading this wondering how I handle them.

Community arenas are notoriously difficult to shoot in. The lighting is typically a mix of fluorescent and metal halide fixtures that don’t always play nicely with camera sensors. The colour temperature can be inconsistent across the ice surface, and the lower light levels compared to NHL arenas mean you’re constantly pushing your ISO higher than you’d like. For an event like Fire & Ice, where the action is fast and the players are moving with genuine intent, I needed to be ready to shoot at high shutter speeds to freeze the action — ideally 1/1000th of a second or faster — which compounds the exposure challenge.

My approach at events like this is to shoot in RAW, set a custom white balance early in the shoot, and accept that some noise reduction will be part of my post-processing workflow. I’d rather have a sharp, slightly noisy image than a blurry clean one. Motion blur in sports photography is almost always unacceptable.

Reading the Play Before It Happens

This is the part of sports photography that I genuinely love and that I think separates good sports shooters from great ones: anticipation. You cannot simply react to hockey. By the time you see the puck hit the back of the net and consciously decide to press the shutter, the moment is already gone. You have to read the play as it develops, position yourself for where you think the action is going, and be half a second ahead of what’s actually happening.

At the Fire & Ice game, this was both easier and harder than a typical game. Easier because the pace, while energetic and genuinely competitive, wasn’t quite at the level of elite hockey — which gave me fractions of extra time to compose. Harder because the players were a mix of athletic backgrounds and the chaos was wonderfully unpredictable. I loved every second of it.

I spent the first period behind the glass at the attacking end of whichever team I thought was more likely to generate offensive chances, repositioning between whistles. By the second period, I had a better feel for the tendencies of both teams and could position more deliberately.

The Moments That Stopped Me Cold

More Than Goals and Saves

Here’s the thing about photographing charity events: the best images aren’t always the goals. They aren’t always the saves or the hits. Sometimes the image that hits hardest is the look on a kid’s face in the stands when a firefighter winks at them through the glass. Sometimes it’s the quiet moment between two players from opposing “teams” sharing a laugh during a stoppage in play — a police officer and a firefighter who probably work side by side in emergency situations, now pretending to be bitter rivals for a few hours in service of kids with cancer.

I made sure to get off the ice level during intermissions to work the crowd. The intermission entertainment was packed — youth hockey showcases, puck tosses, t-shirt tosses into the crowd, and a shoot-to-win contest where one lucky fan had the chance to drive away a vehicle courtesy of Crosstown Chevrolet. There was a 50/50 draw, a silent auction, face painting, and food. The arena hummed with the kind of joy that feels genuinely communal, not manufactured.

I photographed kids catching t-shirts mid-air. I photographed the silent auction table with people leaning over bid sheets. I photographed the faces of parents — some of them likely holding connections to NOFCC that I’ll never fully know.

The Heart Behind the Event: NOFCC and the Families They Serve

Understanding What We’re Really Shooting For

I’ve been photographing events in Sudbury for years now, and one of the things I’m always thinking about is context. What is this event actually about? Who does it serve? When I understand that, my photography changes. I become more intentional. I look for different things.

The work of NOFCC is staggering in its importance when you understand what childhood cancer actually does to a family’s life — not just emotionally, but financially. Families like that of young Gino Germain, whose story was shared as part of the lead-up to this year’s event, illustrate exactly why this charity exists. Gino was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer before he even turned three years old. His family was consumed by his care — weeks at SickKids in Toronto, the cost of hotels (with Ronald McDonald House often full), two households to maintain, one parent off work indefinitely, meals, parking, medications, travel. The costs cascade relentlessly.

NOFCC reached out within days of the diagnosis becoming public. They provided an initial $3,000 for newly diagnosed families and additional support for treatment-related appointments. For a family already stretched thin emotionally and financially, that support was, in the words of Gino’s mother Ashley, like breathing room during the most suffocating period of their lives.

When I know that’s the stakes — when I know that the money raised in this arena tonight might be what keeps a Northern Ontario family from drowning in debt while their child fights for their life — I don’t take a single frame lightly.

Why Events Like This Are My Favourite Work

Community Sports Photography Is a Privilege

I want to be honest about something: I love shooting professional sports. The speed, the talent, the production value — it’s technically demanding and endlessly stimulating. But community sports photography, especially at events like Fire & Ice, reminds me why I picked up a camera in the first place.

Sudbury is my home. The people in that arena on January 30th were my neighbours, my community, the parents of kids who go to school with kids I know. The police officers on the ice serve this city. The firefighters serve this city. And the families helped by NOFCC are part of this community in ways that are often invisible until a diagnosis makes everything visible all at once.

I got into sports photography because I love the human story inside athletic competition. The effort, the emotion, the split-second drama. Events like Fire & Ice give me all of that, wrapped in a larger story of community generosity and collective love for children who deserve every bit of help they can get.

What I Brought Home

Every shoot teaches me something. The Fire & Ice game reminded me to slow down during intermissions and work the crowd with the same attention I give to the ice. It reminded me that context and story make images more powerful than technical perfection alone. And it reminded me that this city — Sudbury, with its big heart and its deep roots — consistently shows up for its own.

To NOFCC, to GSPS, to GSFS, to every ticket holder and donor and volunteer who made the 2026 Fire & Ice Charity Hockey Game happen: thank you. You gave me some of the best frames of my year. More importantly, you gave Northern Ontario families something far more valuable than a photograph. Let’s discuss your next sporting event!