BUFFALO, N.Y. — ​The 11 Day Power Play is back, ready to drop the puck for another 11 straight days. This year, there will be two games going on at Buffalo Riverworks’ two outdoor rinks.

On one ice surface, two teams of 20 players will be looking to break the world record for the longest hockey game ever played. On the other, the 40-team invitational, where supporters will be able to play and cheer on the potential world record breakers.

Amy Lesakowski is busy making sure everything is ready when the 11 Day Power Play drops the puck this Sunday at Buffalo Riverworks.

This is now year five of Amy and her husband Mike’s goal of using the sport of hockey to raise critical funds to help fight cancer.

"We are a hockey family,” Amy said. “I, like a lot of people in Buffalo, have battled cancer and we wanted to give back in a way that really made a difference in our community and support these beneficiaries. And we wanted to do it through the sports of hockey."

Amy battled breast cancer at the age of 35. Mike lost his mother to the disease in 2016. That year, they decided to get involved and get the community to join them. The following summer, 40 players took the ice and broke the record for the longest continuous hockey game while raising over $1 million. But why stop there?

"We went from a world record event in 2017 to the Community Shift with more than 6,000 players participating in the event and now we are here at Riverworks entering our fifth year and raising almost $7 million in five years right here in Buffalo,” Amy said. “It's truly because of our community and everyone who supports it."

Even COVID couldn't slow things down. With no ice in 2020, there was street hockey outside. Now, a new group of 40 players are hitting the ice to set a new record, with another 1,000 players on teams on the ice out to raise $2 million for cancer charities.

"The pandemic changed many things for many not-for-profits so last year. We moved the event outside here at Buffalo Riverworks to be in a safer environment. We didn't know where we were going to be, so we chose to have our event here outside where it’s a lot safer for people and here we are another event and we have the Guinness World Record that we always wanted to bring back. We were here in 2020 and we thought that was a smaller event and when things started opening up with guidelines, we added 40 teams on the ice next to us to add extra motivation for the skaters that will need supporters to come and cheer them on," Amy said.

The day the record returns to Buffalo will be one of the biggest party days of the year, literally. Thanksgiving Eve. Then it's on to 2022.

Fans are encouraged to come to the event to rout the players on. State and local COVID rules apply.