As another outdoor hockey colossus in Calgary enters National Hockey League lore Sunday night, a much smaller, more noble and lesserknown game being played on a rink near Ardrossan will inch closer to another Guinness world record.

While there may be debate about the merits of staging a third Heritage Classic -Sunday's game between the Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens in McMahon Stadium is a reincarnation of the wildly successful and innovative 2003 tilt held in Edmonton -the conversation at Saiker's Acres near Ardrossan will be positive and one-sided.

That is, providing the 40 players taking part in the world's longest hockey game have strength enough to talk it over as they strip away layers of protection against the cold, free their feet from skates worn too long and dream about staying indoors awhile.

They will do this again, make no mistake. In a year or two. After they warm up.

"Many, many times, West Edmonton Mall and River Cree both asked me to play this game at their venue," said Brent Saik, the local optometrist who has been the brains behind the outdoor insanity through all four editions of the longest game, which has always been and will always be played on his rink.

"Truthfully, could we raise more money doing it there? It is possible. But I'll never do it. There is something about what we do out here and I get goosebumps talking about it.

"This is, to us, kind of what hockey is about. And the fact we can take that little bit of heritage and turn it into raising some good dough for a real important cause, it works well. It's too perfect together."

By Monday afternoon, when they finally, mercifully put down their sticks, 39 men and Saik's fiancee, Jenelle Trenchuk, the first woman to join the fun, will have played shinny for more than 241 hours, which was the old record they set in 2008.

The puck dropped on Feb. 11 at 11: 11 a.m. They were 11 minutes late getting started. Too many speeches, somebody said.

They will finish with a flourish and they are confident $1 million will have been raised to help pay for another piece of cancer-fighting technology, a linear accelerator that dramatically cuts treatment time and reduces side effects of radiation therapy. The first three games in 2003, '05 and '08 raised a combined $1.06 million. Consider that the original Heritage Classic at Commonwealth Stadium produced $500,000 for charity eight years ago and the Saiker's Acres effort is all the more amazing. But their story will still be dwarfed by that other game.

"They might not get recognized as much but, in my head, they are the winners," said Edmonton Oilers defenceman Ladislav Smid, who made a trip to Saiker's Acres to lend moral support, along with teammates Tom Gilbert, Jason Strudwick, Liam Reddox and Steve MacIntyre. "I was amazed by them. They are doing a great thing for a great cause."

The fight against cancer has always been that cause. It's the reason they join up in the first place and why Scott Shaw and a handful of others have played in all four of the longest games.

"I keep saying I won't, but I keep doing them," said Shaw. "Brent is pretty good at convincing us and, when we realize what it's going for, it gets hard to say no."

You see, they all have a score to settle with cancer. Shaw lost his father and an uncle to the disease, Saik's wife and father both succumbed to cancer and he has been a tireless contributor to the Cross Cancer Institute for most of his adult life.

The back wall of the rink's heated and enclosed players' bench is plastered with pictures of the people who inspired these ordinary players to do the extraordinary. There are photos of loved ones long gone and survivors, too, because the success stories are just as inspirational. But it's not as if the players sit in the change room or on the bench and talk about cancer. They play the game, they swap lies and insults and sip the odd beer. They give each other nicknames and Shirley, a cancer survivor and mother of Global sports anchor Kevin Karius, who is playing again this year, sews the namebars on the jerseys. There was Pigpen, FoghornLeghorn, PrimeTime, Plan B, Koombeya, Paska and Apple Pie.

"Part of what gets us through is the camaraderie," said Shaw, trying to explain the attraction in something so incredibly uncomfortable.

"That gets you through the minus-25 when you're playing through the night for five or six hours. But the whole reason we're here, everyone has gone through cancer and lost someone, and that's the main focus."

But they need diversions. So Saik grabbed his guitar one night, or early morning, jumped on the Zamboni and serenaded the troops with Cinnamon Girl as the driver motored around the ice. Saik should have been sleeping. He may have been drinking. But that's one way to get everybody through 10 days on an outdoor rink in February.

Saik and most of the other players are big sports fans and the flat screen TV he installed on the bench will allow them to watch the Heritage Classic between their own shifts on Sunday.

"When they play the outdoor classics, it's important to do that," said Saik, who is one of six goalies. "It keeps young kids interested in hockey. It makes you remember what hockey was. I love that they do it. It tells people this is where hockey started, outdoors on ponds. We're trying to mimic that here."

They are doing a modest and wonderful job of it, though nobody will confuse their level of play with that of the Flames or Canadiens on Sunday. Let's be honest, shinny is not a spectator sport. While there were bursts of energy early in the week, some play fighting, and somebody apparently displaying NHL speed, according to Karius, that's hardly the norm. And, on Thursday, with the wind chill making it minus-32, the players were buffeted about the rink as if they were icebergs in the North Sea.

By 1 a.m. Friday, the score was 1,410-1,091 for Team Blue so Team White was a bit downcast, yet buoyed by the knowledge that the 319-goal lead is among the most dangerous in hockey. Hey, the game might not always be worth watching, and don't Oilers fans know that for certain, but my goodness this is a cause and these are people worth supporting.

While Calgary will host its NHL stars and about 41,000 fans on Sunday, Ardrossan has its local heroes going night and day, and perhaps 2,000 supporters will turn out Monday to cheer them through the final hours.

It is an amazing enterprise that takes the efforts of those fans, as well as a crew of referees, cooks, Zamboni drivers and maintenance people. Corporate support keeps streaming in and, as the financial total rises and the number of shifts remaining shrinks, that upbeat atmosphere sends the players back on the ice with renewed vigour, and the appropriate equipment.

They jam hot packs in their gloves, strap booties over top of their skates, wear balaclavas over their heads and jackets beneath their jerseys. They wrap their feet with padding to shield against lace bite and blisters. Former Oilers trainer Ken Lowe was there Thursday morning, helping out and shaking his head.

"I'm used to getting guys ready for 45-second shifts, these guys do four-hour shifts," he said.

When the last one comes to an end Monday, the shots on goal total will exceed the blister count, spirits will be higher than the temperature was Thursday, and there will be no need to fear the sound of the garage door opening to allow the Zamboni back onto the ice.

"That's the worst. When you hear that, it means you've got 10 minutes until your next shift," said Bryce Classen, who is scheduled to play for his senior team in Fort Saskatchewan on Tuesday.

He'll probably show up. Most of them love and loathe this experience in equal measure, depending on the weather, time of day, and day of the week. But they are well over the hump now, the 2011 game almost done, the next one already taking shape, at least in Saik's mind.

"I'll play till cancer is cured; how's that for a deal?" he said, ice crystals twinkling in his long hair.

Sounds crazy. But it just might work.

dbarnes@edmontonjournal.com