Vote for the 2012 Excellence In Punk Rock & Hockey Award

The time has come again. Time to decide the prestigious Up The Pucks Excellence In Punk Rock & Hockey Award. This is the most important award in the punk & hockey community because well, it's the only award in the punk & hockey community.

Last year, Andrew Ference of the Boston Bruins won the award for this lovely gesture. Meanwhile, in year two of this website, we've matured and now have several nominees instead of a hastily made decision.

Additionally, this year we're allowing for our readers and listeners to vote for their choice. Your votes will constitute 50% of the decision.

Without further to do, here's the nominees:

Chris #2 from Anti-Flag

Chris is a lifelong Penguins fan that is best known for playing bass in Anti-Flag. He has been a very vocal supporter of the game and often plays pick up games while on tour. This year during Warped Tour, Chris sought out the other hockey fans on the tour and helped encourage some of them to start playing again. His other Warped Tour exploits include taking a group of his fellow hockey fans in bands to Henrik Lundqvist's NHL Awards part and playing street hockey games on amphitheater stages after shows. For his continued efforts to bring more hockey into the punk scene, Chris gets a nomination.

SF Ruins Hockey Club

Founded by a group of friends that play adult hockey in San Francisco, the Ruins are the first "Punk Rock Hockey Club." With a roster composed of mainly Bay Area punks, including NOFX's Eric Melvin, the team was formed when an opening appeared in their association's "B" league. Although they initially started out poorly, the team last season worked their way to the deciding game of the league's final. The Ruins have helped influence teams in other cities and for being the predecessors, they get a nomination.

Luke Gallo/Punk Rock Hockey group

Gallo, a filmmaker, is currently in the process of trying to make a documentary that follows a group of street punks in Toronto that play weekly street hockey games. With some of them recovering from drug use, these punks play the game to give their lives some normalcy and stability. This group invests what they have into taking care of their place to play and providing a sense of community for each other. Recently the group had their first Punk Rock Hockey tournament, complete with a handmade trophy. For being a bunch of punks that get together weekly to play hockey and use the game as a way to build community, Luke and this group get our third and final nomination.

This year we have a pretty strong group of nominees. Feel free to submit your vote and know that reader/listeners votes will account for 50% of the decision making process, with the other 50% coming from the staff votes.

Be aware that voting will end Monday, August 20th at 11:59pm EST.