Jimmy Snuggerud (left) and Sam Rinzel in sixth grade math class at Breakaway Academy.
However, the competition on the ice did get out of hand occasionally.
"We got in a fight, must have been sixth grade," Jimmy said. "We were playing at Breakaway and we had a game day Tuesday, and I gave him an absolute hack to the wrist, almost broke his wrist. He got off the ice and we were fighting the rest of the day but the next day we made up and we were fine."
As much as Rinzel remembers his sore wrist, it was the fiberglass shrapnel he'd sometimes have to pick out of his neck that stands out.
"When he was younger he'd kind of use, maybe, half-broken sticks a little bit to play, maybe cut you around the neck a little bit," Rinzel said. "His stick comes flying up and will cut your neck and you got a big black scar on your neck from all the fiberglass."
Snuggerud said he never purposely chopped his friends on the neck. And the sticks he used usually came from whatever Dave had lying around the garage from a professional career that included 265 NHL games with the Buffalo Sabres, San Jose Sharks and Philadelphia Flyers.
"I didn't really have the nicest sticks," the younger Snuggerud said. "My dad just kind of gave me sticks in the garage, I didn't need the nicest ones. It wasn't intentional to put graphite in their neck, but I'd just use the stick and graphite would fly out. … I didn't necessarily whack them on the neck."
The elder Snuggerud said the competition extended off the ice as well.
"We have a game, it's called Geography Challenge, and you'd step up to a world map and you have to point to either major cities or countries in the world," Dave said. "And we did everything through bracket play. And those two would always end up getting towards the finals throughout the whole fifth grade class or the whole sixth grade, whatever year they were in school, and just being competitive on trying to point out world countries. And then we also do a chess tournament. They have to learn to play chess and now they're competitive in chess.
"They helped each other compete in chess, they helped each other compete in the classroom. Then it just carries over to the rink, being competitive."