In Broomall, hockey where it belongs: Outside

In the evening, motorists who pass Joe and Diane DeRita's house on Media Line Road in Broomall often slow down to gawk. It's not because of the Christmas candles in the windows or the colored lights that still decorate the trees and shrubs.

What catches their attention are kids on skates gliding around the yard with hockey sticks in hand on an illuminated homemade rink.

If the drivers rolled down their windows, they would hear peals of laughter, shouts of triumph, calls of encouragement, a constant chorus of youthful exuberance.

This is the winter equivalent of sandlot baseball. It is makeshift pond hockey transplanted to the civilized suburbs. At a time when culture critics lament that children spend too much time gazing at TV and computer screens and have forgotten how to play outdoors, Joe DeRita and his brother, Marc, have created a neighborhood attraction.

"Every night is the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals, third overtime," says Joe DeRita, 50, who captained the ice hockey team when he was a senior at Cardinal O'Hara High School. "The kids have a blast."

Last weekend, despite the bitter temperatures and stinging wind, the backyard rink was packed from morning till nearly midnight, with an ever-changing cast of hockey enthusiasts, some sporting their fealty to the Flyers with jerseys of orange and black. Like their heroes who participated in the recent NHL game at Fenway Park in Boston, they were demonstrating an abiding truth of the sport. In Joe's words: "There's nothing like outdoor hockey."

The rink is a DeRita family tradition. Nearly five years ago, Joe, Diane, and their two daughters moved into the grand and venerable house that his mother, Elda, occupied for 42 years. "El," who died in 2005, was a Flyers fanatic.

In 1992, Marc DeRita decided to build a small rink on the property so he could teach his daughter Elizabeth, then 2, how to skate. Year by year, the rink became larger and more sophisticated. El DeRita loved watching the youngsters cavort on the ice from her kitchen window.

Every November, as the temperature begins dropping, the young generation of DeRitas, and their neighbors and chums from St. Anastasia's and O'Hara, begin wondering: When will the rink go up?

Then Joe DeRita, who works at a Sunoco refinery, and Marc DeRita, 46, a cabinetmaker, begin hauling the 2-by-10 planks from under the front porch. They join the boards end-to-end to form a rectangle of 28 feet by 57 feet, about a tenth the size of an NHL rink.

The compact size makes the rink ideal for learning hockey, says Marc DeRita, a Newtown Square resident who plays several times a week with an adult team in West Chester. "You have to do a lot of turns and stops, and you pick up a lot of puck skills," he says.

The area inside the rink is covered with a synthetic liner, similar in texture to house wrap, then is filled with water. "It's as much work as a pool," Joe DeRita says, "but if we get the right weather, it's worth it."

Some years, it has been too warm to skate. Other years, the rink has been usable for only a week or so. A good year means the ice is frozen for a month. The unremitting cold of the last week has been perfect, and Joe DeRita has high hopes for a long run. "We got the whole El Niño thing going for us," he says.

Monday night, the temperature was frigid enough that many of the adult spectators huddled around the glowing logs in the outdoor fire pit.

"It's a great way to get through January," said Joe DeRita's sister, Felicia, 55, as she toasted her feet by the blaze.

Other adults sought refuge in the garage, where a copious supply of hockey sticks and skating gear shares space with a lawn tractor. The grown-ups sipped beer and wine and nibbled pizza, hoagie sections and Aunt Di's biscotti. Aunt Di (a.k.a. Joe's wife, Diane), makes the Italian treat according to a recipe she learned from El. In addition to loving hockey, El DeRita loved feeding people.

"If you were hungry, she loved you even more," Joe DeRita says. "It's all about hospitality, family and friends."

On the ice, meanwhile, the youngsters generated their own heat as they corralled and chased pucks with the special glee that comes from knowing it's a school night, homework can wait, and nothing is more important than firing a slapshot that whizzes past the goalie.

"I love it," said young Marc DeRita, 16, a junior at O'Hara, where he is a member of the ice hockey team. "I learned how to skate on this rink."

"Pretty awesome," said Matt Young, 14, a neighbor whose house overlooks the rink. "I've been skating here since first grade."

After taking his first halting strides on skates, Christian Sessa, 6, another neighbor, pronounced the rink "the best thing ever."

Occasionally, the young hockey studs were joined by girls practicing twirls on figure skates. Fathers ventured onto the ice in street shoes to help their sons perfect saucer shots and master such basic moves as "give and go." Periodically, Jessica DeRita, 14, one of Marc's daughters, made like a Zamboni, pushing shavings off the ice with a squeegee.

Near 10 p.m., when the clack of stick and puck had ceased and the rink was empty, when all the boys and girls had departed with ruddy cheeks, weary bodies and happy memories, Diane DeRita was moved to observe: "We know how to have fun."