Be careful how you pronounce Louis Lafrado’s hockey team’s name.

It’s the “IceHoles” and it’s a charitable foundation, in reality, with a big game slated for Jan. 19 at Santa Ana Star Center.

There, at 4 p.m., the IceHoles will face a team of local media members, is dubbed (for some reason) the “Jackals,” which will include Observer sports editor Gary Herron, in a hockey game before the New Mexico Scorpions’ game at 7:15 with Wichita. Special Olympics is the beneficiary of the game; tickets cost $15, and anyone who’d like to stay and watch the Scorpions’ game at no additional charge. ($3 from each ticket sold goes to Special Olympics; $1 from each ducat goes to the IceHoles.)

The IceHoles have been around since 1996, said Lafrado, a defenseman and the team’s captain, not to mention a season ticket-holder for the Scorpions. His wife, Linda Davis, is also a die-hard hockey fan.

“(The IceHoles) began as something of a lark,” he explained, noting how some older hockey players fooling around at Blades Multiplex Arenas in Rio Rancho got acquainted with New Mexico Scorpions players at the new pro team’s inaugural training camp here.

“We became friends,” Lafrado said of the on-ice relationship.

Most people call the type of hockey played by the IceHoles the “pick-up” variety n there aren’t many old-timers, guys in the 40s and 50s and even older n that are either limber enough or enthusiastic enough to keep playing the game.

During the Scorpions’ 1999-2000 season, Lafrado recalled, the IceHoles decided there was “a possibility of doing something more positive,” and it was suggested that an annual game be played, with proceeds going to a charity.

The first beneficiary was Cody Unser, beset with a rare, debilitating disease. “I think $500 was raised,” Lafrado said.

In 2005, the IceHoles (the group’s official name is New Mexico IceHoles Charitable Foundation, with Lafrado as the president) were granted non-profit status: Internal Revenue Service-approved 501.c.3.

The Lupus Foundation, Multiple Sclerosis Society, United Blood Services, and Carrie Tingley Hospital have been previous beneficiaries of IceHoles games.

Although Lafrado is no stranger to Canada’s national pastime, which is still something of an oddity in the Southwest, he said he had what amounted to a 26-year hiatus. He grew up in Jersey City, N.J., where outdoor hockey was prevalent every winter.

“As a kid. I fell in love with the game,” he said, recalling even now the first game he saw in 1960, which featured the Long Island Ducks.

He is still a diehard New York Rangers fan and said his real passion for hockey comes in collecting jerseys: “I have 120,” he beamed., including a CHL all-star jersey plus a Scorpions jersey once worn by Frank LaScala.

Once the Scorpions began playing in the Duke City almost a dozen years ago, Lafrado returned to his roots — and started lacing up the skates again.

Now, he says, the IceHoles “are an excuse to put on an exhibition in front of people n and get some ice time.”

Most of the IceHoles players also compete in a men’s league at the Outpost arena in the Sandia foothills, where there are beginner, intermediate and competitive divisions.

Lafrado moved to New Mexico in 1993; he did AIDS vaccine research on chimpanzees at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, then relocated to Albuquerque to work for the University of New Mexico.

Today, Lafrado owns and operates L&D Associates, a consulting group. He’s lived in Rio Rancho for two years

Various levels of sponsorship are still available for this event. These range from event sponsorship to general support. Sponsors should contact the group’s corporate partner at socal@landd.net.