By the numbers, it’s quite an accomplishment: 2,500 hundred players, 164 teams, 11 days.

It all adds up to one singular goal: Beating cancer.  

  • $1.6M raised during the 2019 11 Day Power Play 
  • 164 teams took the ice 
  • Next year the hockey marathon will return next summer 

"Never underestimate your ability to improve someone's life, even if you never know it," Lori Jablonksi said. "That's what this is." 

That was the motto Lori Jablonski's son JJ lived by. 

"He all of a sudden had a sore throat and then was diagnosed with leukemia," Jablonski said. "He went into remission about a month later." 

Lori said it was an infection that followed that took her 21-year-old son from them back in 2016. Fast forward to Monday morning and 35 players make up the Jabs for Life, Flying with JJ team. They were the second-to-last game on the ice. 

"It's just so humbling to think he influenced so many people and they cared enough about him to be here," Jablonski said. 

The same could be said for each player who laced up skates and then took the ice for three hours at a time, for friends or even strangers, during the 11 Day Power Play. 

"I mean it's the 'City of Good  Neighbors' but at the same time it's like wow," said Amy  Lesakowski, co-founder and executive director of the 11 Day Power Play. "The people that come and support this event are incredible, the volunteers and the sponsors." 

Before the drop of the first puck, Buffalo raised last year's total of $1.2 million. 

"We never know when you are going to be affected by cancer," Lesakowski said. "To know your child has a camp to go to, or a wish potentially for your family to enjoy time alone and some time alone and do something you love to do and then looking forward to the research at Roswell Park." 

Life changing moments made possible by taking on cancer, one shift at a time. 

"Attitude is everything, you have to believe that you are going to win," Jablonski said. "My son did every day."