Female hockey players making up 74 teams from the metro area competed against one another and one bigger opponent - breast cancer - in a hockey tournament last weekend in Blaine.

Like many other people around the world, Lynn Thomson has been affected by cancer. She has never been diagnosed herself, but she knows people who have been and who continue to struggle with the disease. Thomson and 18 other mothers of players in the Spring Lake Park Hockey Association played last weekend to honor those in the struggle and to help raise funds for cancer research.

Thomson, who has lived in Blaine for the past six years, played for her sister Lisa Hochstedler of Coon Rapids who is battling breast cancer and was diagnosed last September. She also played for Elde and Joanne Foster of Minneapolis who are friends of her parents. Joanne Foster has breast cancer. Elde Foster has leukemia, but Thomson also put his picture up on a board at the Schwan's Super Rink where the tournament occurred to honor him as well even though the tournament focused on breast cancer.

Thomson played for other friends as well, including her sister-in-law's father who lives in Chicago and has esophageal cancer. Thomson was also playing for other team members who knew people with breast cancer.

Jackie Olson, the Stick-It-To-Cancer tournament director, said that 68 teams competed last year and that coordinators hope to expand the tournament next year beyond this year's entry of 74 teams. They played Friday through Sunday on four ice sheets at the Schwan's Super Rink. Olson hopes to secure two of the new ice sheets as well for next year's tournament. There was so much interest from local teams that they had to turn people away, she said.

Saturday's all-you-can-eat waffle breakfast was well attended with about 165 people in attendance, according to Olson. Between 1,000 and 1,500 people attended during the three-day tournament. The total collected amount has not been determined, Olson told Sun Focus.

Almost all the proceeds will go to the University of Minnesota Cancer Center. Last year, 80 percent of the profits went to fund cancer research with 20 percent of the proceeds paying for operation of the tournament.

The tournament featured young girls on U-10 teams all the way up to middle-aged women.

The Ice Wrenches team that Thomson, 34, was on featured mothers from their mid-20s to around 40 years old. They met each other through their kids involved in the Spring Lake Park Youth Hockey Association and in the spring of 2006 thought it would be fun to take hockey skills classes together. Last fall, they began scrimmaging every Friday and continued honing their skills through skills classes.

Thomson said she played hockey growing up at her neighborhood park, Norwood Park in Brooklyn Park. She never skated a lot though besides that, but most of the other moms were good skaters. The skill level did not matter though. Thomson said it was for fun.

They did not even plan to compete in any tournaments, but when they were at the Schwan's Super Rink earlier this year, they saw a flyer posted on a bulletin board announcing the Stick-It-To-Cancer tournament and they agreed to sign up along with a couple of moms involved with the Blaine and Tri-City youth hockey associations.

"We knew this was a good cause and that's why we wanted to do this one," Thomson said.