Plenty of hockey—22 hours of nonstop games, to be exact—was played last weekend at the sixth annual Hockey Heals 22 tournament at AdventHealth Center Ice in Wesley Chapel.
That’s a lot of skating, goals, saves, whistles and everything in between.
The barrage of hockey culminated with nearly $100,000 in funds, which will be donated to a pair of area nonprofit organizations that support veteran mental health and veteran suicide prevention.
Hockey Heals 22 is hosted by the Lightning Warriors, the charitable organization and hockey program comprised of military veterans and first responders which operates under the Tampa Bay Lightning umbrella.
Chris Scangarello served over 22 years in the United States Marine Corps and Florida Army National Guard and is the Lightning Warriors executive director. When he walked into the rink last week to help with event setup, he had to pause for a moment.
“It was already buzzing, and I was like, ‘Wow.’ It was a little overwhelming at first. We came from barely getting teams to sign up for it, to this year we’re turning teams away,” Scangarello said. “It’s very humbling to be a piece of it, to be able to give back and still support the community. I always say that folks that serve in the military, they just have that giving in their heart to serve, and it’s another way to keep on doing it after we leave the service. It gives us purpose.”
Hockey Heals 22 began with a 2:30 p.m. game on Saturday featuring a list of Lightning alumni including Ryan Malone, Adam Hall, Mathieu Garon and others before the games concluded around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Four teams rotated throughout 17 total games, with many of the 212 players in the Lightning Warriors program filling spots on the teams. Area sports personalities served as coaches, too.
Games are played for 22 hours to recognize and raise awareness to the 22 veteran suicides that occur daily.
“It’s about just raising awareness to No. 1, that epidemic, and then No. 2, resources in all of the different organizations such as ours that are here to help support the veterans and hopefully make them choose another path than taking their life,” Scangarello said.
The 2026 running of Hockey Heals 22 resulted in over $90,000 in funds that will benefit a pair of nonprofits in Operation Healing Forces, which offers retreats for special operations warriors to better their mental health, and the Black Dagger Military Hunt Club, which gets veterans outdoors through hunting, fishing and other activities.
Hockey is one way for veterans to build a community, Scangarello said, and it provides them with a familiar feeling.
“Hockey as an outlet for veterans in general, it’s the ultimate team sport. It’s not something you can go out and just do on your own, and I liken it to our elite military forces such as Delta Force, Seals, and all those guys. They go out in small teams of five and six, and that’s what we do on the ice,” Scangarello said.
“We’ll go out in a small team and get out on the ice and battle, if you will. It just brings that level of dependency on the person next to you just as we do in combat. You know that person’s got you covered, and then we get the locker room aspect of it kind of like being in the barracks with the camaraderie there. It really helps to bring that brotherhood and sisterhood back that you may have lost after leaving service and just that connection into the military community itself.”
The Lightning Warriors use the same branding as its NHL namesake, and the Lightning Hockey Development team designed custom jerseys for the Warriors. The NHL organization also donates $20,000 each year to the program.
Tampa Bay Lightning Hockey Development Manager Aaron Humphrey this week called the NHL team’s relationship with the Lightning Warriors “amazing”.
“It was kind of a match made in heaven because they were looking for some extra support, and it was a no-brainer for us,” Humphrey said. “They lay their life on the line to allow us to do what we want to do, and being able to just support them a little bit means a lot to us.”
Scangarello aims for an “even bigger and better” running of Hockey Heals 22 next summer. The seventh annual event has already been scheduled for June 26-27, 2027.