There's no getting around the fact that hockey is an expensive sport one of the most expensive in fact.

There's the hockey equipment, which can range anywhere from $30 to in excess of $600 just for a pair of skates. Add on to that hundreds more for gloves, shoulder and shin pads, pants and sticks. And if your kid decides he or she wants to be a goalie, a parent could be looking at $4,000 for full equipment.

Then there's ice fees, costs of trips one or more of your kids may be taking to Outside tournaments, and if they really love the sport, there's the countless camps they attend in the offseason.

It's enough to make parents crazy and broke. But if you think you have it bad with the costs of playing hockey in the Yukon, imagine living in Alaska, where they pay about $260 American per hour for ice in minor hockey. In Whitehorse, an hour of ice time runs from $62.10 (nonprime time) to $82.80 (prime time) per hour, which is included in the players' minor hockey fees at the start of the year. Of course, that's just for house league games. Rep team players pay an additional fee for their practices.

Mike Young, the sport coordinator of the Whitehorse Minor Hockey Association and also head coach of the bantam rep team, said local athletes are lucky. He said he actually tried to get a hold of associations in B.C. and Alberta after last season to get a comparison on ice rates, although he never really got much feedback.

'But, one lady that came here from Saskatchewan was amazed at how little we paid for ice here, compared to Saskatchewan,' said Young. 'We try to keep it as cheap as possible.'

Yukoners are also lucky to have two hockey rinks soon to be four when the multiplex is finished for roughly 320 players. In Anchorage, there are just four rinks for about 1,300 players. And since the high school's don't have their own rinks, that means 10 minute periods for house league and high school games, as well as limited practice time, although, teams still find a way to practice quite often.

'They all practice every day, expect on game days,' said midget North Stars coach Fred Braden, who was born and raised in Anchorage and has been involved in the sport next door for 35 years. 'And they practice right after school, so there's not a lot of demand for ice time.

'They're building a new rink out in Palmer, which doesn't help us out much. We had one out in South Anchorage, for about four years, and then they just shut it down about a year ago. They said they weren't making money. I don't know how. It's $260 an hour for ice, so I don't know how you can't make money.'

Besides ice fees, youngsters in Anchorage also pay fairly high registration fees, since minor hockey there works on a club system instead of an association.

There are three or four different organizations in town and they all field rep teams, for instance, Braden's North Stars. And every rep team takes trips Outside the state, mostly to Alberta and B.C., as well as an annual tournament in Whitehorse. So how do parents afford it all?

'We do a little bit of fundraising,' said Braden. 'Our association did a big fundraiser this year, but pretty much the parents write a cheque. I don't understand it. It's like, By the way, we can fundraise.' And they go, Nah, we just want to write a cheque.' They don't want to put in the effort to fundraise.'

Which is why Braden's club only takes about three trips a year before the state championships in the spring, even though he would like to take six if money was no object. He finds the lack of travel has a big affect on the team's performance Outside.

'I think it affects us a lot, because we've got our high school program here and so the kids, at the end of October, they all split up to play high school hockey. So, then we just get our Thanksgiving and Christmas tournaments and hopefully one at the end of the year, before our state tournament rolls around.'

While the Yukon squads don't travel very often either, due to costs, at least the rep teams practice together on a regular basis, said Braden.

'That break that we're (Alaska teams) not together, between Christmas and the end of the year, I think it really affects the kids a lot. They're split up and they're not playing together. That's always a big hurdle we've got, trying to keep continuity together.'

When the midget North Stars came to Whitehorse last November, they certainly held their own, taking two of the three games against the local team. Braden said he always enjoys coming to the Yukon.

'Geez, we go over there and that last game, there was what, 800, 900 people or so? And they're up on their feet and cheering, yelling, having a good time. We play in front of about half a dozen parents and a couple girlfriends and that's about it.'

Braden also enjoys the Canadian style of hockey, which he said is slightly different in terms of defence.

'Guys around here aren't too accountable in their own end. Everybody's looking to score all the time and if they get scored on, it's like, OK, we'll just have to get one later on I guess.

'It's (physical defensive play) something that our guys need to do and get better at, to be more of a complete hockey team. That's our big thing, to incorporate the roughness and physical style of play. And then, when we go on offence, we can use our speed and skill. We're trying to blend it together, instead of just being a one-dimension team.'

As far as rule differences, Braden pointed to the fact Canada uses tag-up offside while in the U.S., everybody has to clear the zone before you put the puck back in, which he said slows up the game.

'Other than that, the referees in Canada seem to let guys play a little more, rather than make a call on every little ticky-tack thing, which I like.'

There has been talk among Braden and hockey organizers in Whitehorse of expanding the annual meeting between the two clubs. They're hoping to get some Northern B.C. teams, such as Fort St. John, Dawson Creek and Prince Rupert to join the fray, as well as a couple more Alaska teams.

They're also thinking about holding a home-and-home series between Alaska and the Yukon in the future.

'We've talked about that for the past couple of years, but with our high school program going, the timing just never seems to work out,' said Braden, adding it's too bad.

'We need to play the Canadian game more often.'

Of course, several players get the chance to play Canadian hockey on a regular basis when they graduate from high school. The majority of Alaskan youngsters jump to the U.S. Hockey League, based out of the Midwest, or the North American Hockey League, which has a team in Fairbanks, when they are done with midget. But a few end up in B.C. and Alberta playing junior hockey.

And of course, if you're as good as hometown heroes Scott Gomez or Ty Conklin or even Aces forward BJ Young who played a couple of games in the NHL and a bunch in the American Hockey League (AHL) you end up in Canadian major junior hockey or U.S. College hockey.

Braden said Anchorage probably has four or five guys playing in the AHL right now, and a fair amount about 12 overall have been drafted from the state. He said as hometown players return from the pros or university and take up coaching positions, the coaching just keeps getting better. And the players tend to get better because of that.

'I think that's why there's more guys that are getting drafted and more going into college hockey.

'It seems like the talent gets better every year. My dad came and watched a tournament last year and he was amazed at the skill level these guys had at 15 compared to what he's used to.'