St. Marys Lincolns
Rink: Pyramid Recreation Complex
Capacity: 1,400
Built: 1977
League: GOHL
City: St. Marys, Ontario
Home Of: St. Marys Lincolns
Games Attended: 1
Only Game: April 17, 2026 vs Stratford
Unique Arena: #123
GOHL Arena: #8
In April 2025 I went to my first ever Junior B GOHL game, a league final game at Chatham Memorial Arena with a packed house full of rabid hockey fans. That experience made me realize that I should definitely explore more of the GOHL, especially since most of the league is within a couple hours’ drive of my home, and with me not making any road trips to the US for the time being. One thing I told myself was that I didn’t need to go crazy and go to every single rink. I didn’t have really any desire to go to a rec centre-style arena with seats on one side only, watching a hockey game with 200 other people.
Well, that got thrown out the window pretty quickly when I attended a GOHL game in Brantford. As the 2025-26 season went on, I hit most of the arenas that were on my bucket list that I had genuine interest in seeing, or were at least very close to my home. My regular travel partner OHLAG went to most of these games with me, but also ventured out to some on his own. One of those games he went to solo was in St. Marys, Ontario, home of the GOHL’s Lincolns. Seeing pictures of their arena I really wasn’t all that interested in going, but OHLAG informed me it was worth a trip down. Fast forward to April, the Lincolns were deep into the playoffs playing nearby rival Stratford and we had a beautiful clear spring Friday with not much else going on. I decided to go for it.
I think of myself as knowing my local geography pretty well. I love maps and it was one of the few subjects in school I excelled in. Despite all that, full disclosure, I had never even known of the existence of St. Marys, Ontario until my first GOHL game in Chatham where the Lincolns were the visitors. St. Marys isn’t exactly remote, but it’s not exactly on the way to any place major either. It is located just off highway 7 between London and Stratford. A quaint town of 7,200 people, I rolled in late on a sunny Friday afternoon and immediately thought, ‘what a nice little town.’ The town motto is The Town Worth Living In. Another thing I had no clue about was that apparently the town is home to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Had I known this fact, I would’ve come down a couple hours earlier to check it out.
The arena (originally known as St. Marys Arena) opened in 1977, but has been expanded over the years and transformed into the now-named Pyramid Recreation Centre. The complex has a second ice pad with limited seating as well as a pool area for the community, which just underwent a huge renovation that wrapped up in early 2026. Passing through the main entrance, you go by both the secondary ice pad and pool area through the lobby that very much gives off the 1970s vibe and aesthetic, but in a way that does not feel run down whatsoever. This place has been well taken care of. The arena that is home to the Lincolns is further back into the complex behind the secondary ice pad. There is a concession area with windows looking into the rink directly behind one of the nets. Immediately above this concession area is a lounge on the second level that also has windows overlooking the rink. You can enter the arena at ice level or head upstairs and enter the rink that way.
The rink has a listed capacity of 1,400 seats, the majority of which are on one side of the rink in a grandstand setup, with the first row elevated some six or so feet from ice level creating a pathway the full length of the ice. There is another corridor at the top of this grandstand with stairs at either end. All seating on this side are wooden benches drilled into concrete. The opposite side has three rows of these wooden benches for some extra seating. On the bench side in between the blue lines there are some actual plastic seats which are assigned seating. There are no seats in the ends, but fans can stand around the glass except behind one of the nets that has the windows to the concession area.
As mentioned earlier in this review, my first GOHL game was a playoff game in Chatham that had a fantastic atmosphere and set the bar pretty high for any other GOHL game I would attend in the future. So far, I would say St. Marys is the only other rink that has come close to that atmosphere so far. However, they are also the only two GOHL arenas I’ve seen games in during the playoffs. I saw a beyond-capacity crowd of over 1,400, with people lined up three deep along the glass, watch what was a fantastic barn-burner of a game that ended in OT with the visitors from Stratford victorious. The crowd was into it all game and loud. There was one guy just a few seats away from us that had converted what appeared to be a power drill into a horn that was ungodly loud. He doesn’t use it super often, but he did use it obviously for all Lincolns goals and also every time they hit the ice to start a period, and on big hits. It adds to the atmosphere, but you might want to cover your ears if you value your long-term ability to hear.
There are no distractions at a St. Marys game beyond the ones we all carry in our pocket. No video board shouting ads at you or pushing kiss cams, just an older gentleman on the PA announcing starting lineups and penalties like Paul Morris did at Maple Leaf Gardens. Starting every announcement with “Your attention please” followed by an announcement like “if you see Jerry in the concourse wish him a happy birthday!”
OHLAG and I have discussed what we’ve called the big deal test. Does being at this game feel like a big deal. Some of the GOHL games I’ve been to have not passed that test, but St. Marys passed it with flying colours. This is small town Canada watching great hockey in a packed barn and is as pure as it gets. All week leading up to the game I went back and forth on whether or not I would actually go, but before the puck even dropped, I was so happy that I did go. St. Marys, the rink worth going to in the town worth living in.
