A two-day hockey tournament sandwiched around a beer festival brought lots of people and activity to the ice rink at Kalispell’s Woodland Park on Friday and Saturday.

That includes nine Montana breweries that brought the beer, six competing hockey teams, four former NHL stars, dozens of volunteers and about 200 hockey and beer fans there for the show.

The Craft Brewers Cup Hockey Challenge and Brewfest marks one of the biggest winter events held in a Kalispell park in 25 years —  and the only event in a park allowed to offer beer — said Mike Baker, the city’s director of parks and recreation.

“I’ve gotten some pretty good feedback from people who attended,” Baker said.

The tournament was put together in less than a month after getting a special exception to sell and consume beer in a city park from the Kalispell City Council.

The event seems to have come and gone without a hitch — so well that people already are talking about plans for next year.

Organizers are still counting money brought in from admissions, donations, sponsorships and the sale of four-ounce beer samples. But the tournament is expected to have raised about $10,000 for the Flathead Valley Hockey Association.

The nonprofit group will use that cash to help pay down its mortgage for the Woodland Ice Center, an outdoor rink where volunteers run youth and adult hockey leagues and offer skating and hockey lessons and open skating sessions.

The Craft Brewers Cup was meant to be one last hurrah for the ice before season’s end.

“The list of thanks could go on and on,” said Josh Townsley, who helped organize the tournament. “It was a giant team effort.”

Townsley is president and owner of Tamarack Brewing Co. in Lakeside, vice president of the Montana Brewers Association and a volunteer youth hockey coach for the Flathead Valley Hockey Association.

Townsley also played on Tamarack’s hockey team that won the Craft Beer Cup by defeating a team put together by Missoula’s Draught Works Brewery.

Tamarack played through the tournament without one of its other owners, former Calgary Flames star Lanny McDonald. McDonald brought friends Colin Patterson, Dana Murzyn and Steve Bozek, all former Calgary Flames who like him took turns playing for the other teams in the tournament.

“Everybody got to play with an NHL player, so that was a pretty special experience,” said Mike Lozar, a Polson resident and owner of Brewery Art International who helped organize the tournament.

“I played on the Craft Beer Guild’s team. We came in sixth, but we all had a fantastic time,” Lozar said.

Beer sales normally prohibited in Kalispell parks made up about 50 percent of the money generated.

Kalispell made a special exception for the tournament, hoping to use the nonprofit fundraiser as a test case as it explores allowing at least some events with beer in city parks.

Breweries from all over Montana donated beer, including Draught Works, Madison River Brewing, Great Northern Brewing, Tamarack Brewing, Blackfoot River Brewing, Bitter Root Brewing, Flathead Lake Brewing and Yellowstone Valley Brewing.

Players with the Flathead Flames adult women’s hockey team volunteered to help staff the event.

“It was just a huge success for us,” said Alice Judd, a right wing and center on the team whose 13-year-old plays on a team in the Flathead Valley Hockey Association’s youth hockey leagues.

“The worst thing I saw was like one or two little sample glasses that got dropped or something,” Judd said. “Several of us were there in case there were any problems, but we were just standing around thinking, ‘This is an easy job.’”

Organizers had to purchase liability insurance to cover themselves and the city.

Several volunteers with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Posse also were on hand to keep the peace, but the only thing that broke out off the ice was a brief beer festival on Saturday, Townsley said.

“We look forward to next year and growing it. We had six teams who all wanted registration forms for next year,” Townsley said.

“It was a blast. Hopefully the city deems it fit that we can do this every winter. They hold the key. We were on a test run here and I think it went off without a hitch.”

HOCKEY association members plan to make that pitch to the Kalispell City Council in a couple of weeks, giving council members an update on how things went.

Council member Randy Kenyon on Monday said he attended the hockey games and beer festival on Saturday. His biggest complaints, he noted jokingly: The beer sample glasses were a little on the small side and the security was so tight that he got asked for ID for the first time in about 20 years.

“There was a big crowd, they had a great band, good hockey,” Kenyon said of the event, which was contained within a fence around the rink. “I think it was a wonderful thing. I didn’t see any issues.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.