One day in 1971, American Paul Pelland boarded an airplane for a business trip. On that flight was John Bieth, a Canadian.

Somehow, they ended up chatting. They recognized a shared involvement with youth hockey, Pelland in Lancaster, Pa., Bieth in Kitchener, Ontario.

“And out of that simple conversation and exchange of ideas, this whole wonderful idea was born,” said Crystal Lantzy, who serves as secretary for the Friendship Hockey Exchange.

The program marks its 40th anniversary this year, having begun in 1972 when a team of bantam players from Kitchener, upon Pelland’s invitation, came to central Pennsylvania to play a Lancaster team.

Organizers bill it as the oldest hockey exchange of its kind in North America. Some former players are now involved with the exchange as coaches or as parents of current players.

Canadians arrive Thursday

Lancaster and Kitchener will renew their friendship starting on Thursday, when six buses filled with six Canadian youth teams will arrive in Lancaster, gift bags and host families there to greet them.

The six Lancaster teams will comprise 107 players from Lancaster, Reading, Palmyra, Hershey, Harrisburg – and even four from Maryland. The teams will represent a full range of skill levels, mites to midgets, ages 6 to 18.

The first game will start at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Lancaster Ice Rink. Each team will participate in its own opening ceremony before playing three weekend games. The games will be spread out among Lancaster Ice Rink, Regency Ice Rink in Lancaster, and Twin Ponds East in Harrisburg.

The final youth game will conclude at 4 p.m. Sunday. At 4:15, the Coaches Charity Classic will pit coaches against one another to entertain the crowd and to raise money for Juvenile Diabetes.

The Canadian portion of the trip will take place March 1-5. Besides playing their games, the Americans will find time for stops in Toronto at the Hockey Hall of Fame and Wayne Gretzky’s restaurant.

Lantzy’s son, Cameron, 11, is participating in the exchange for a fourth year. She and her husband, Kevin, will welcome two Canadian players into their Red Lion, York County, home, much to Cameron’s delight, she said.

Remembering Ben

While Cameron, who plays at the peewee level, and other veterans of the exchange might know what to expect, a surprise still awaits each of the central Pennsylvania players. The teams’ jerseys change each year, and this year’s design won’t be unveiled until players are admitted to their locker rooms to get dressed for their first games.

The exchange is geared to in-house players who otherwise might never experience a tournament or out-of-town travel on a scale that travel-team players do. The emphasis in this friendly competition comes down squarely on the side of friendly.

Winning in the traditional sense is not an option. Not when the third period of each game is given to horseplay, such as having the goalies take face-offs, or to tossing 30 pucks onto the ice at one time. Don’t pay too close attention to the scoreboard: it might read 115-2.

“It’s definitely not about the win,” Lantzy said.

It’s about the friendships, which endure and even strengthen in times of tragedy. The American players will wear gray ribbons on their jerseys in memory of Canadian player Ben Raslovetzky, who died in October after a three-year fight against cancer. The ribbons will include “29,” the number Ben wore when he participated in the exchange.

Lantzy, who along with Cameron and others from central Pennsylvania attended Ben’s funeral, alluded to those personal connections when she said this about the exchange:

“You can’t describe it in words. It’s a feeling, and it’s just something you have to feel.”