Bonding on Ice : For the adult players who flock to area rinks, hockey is more than a game, it’s a way of life and a link to the past.

As midnight approached, Steve Reynolds tightened his skates and tried to loosen his nerves. Hockey, his favorite weekly pastime, was moments away from the opening faceoff.

“I know this is crazy, but when you play once a week, you’ll play any time,” said Reynolds, 32, of Saugus, who works in customer service for Southern California Gas Co. “I start to think about it 48 hours before the game.”

He is far from alone. Adult hockey--for players 18 and older--in the San Fernando Valley is booming.

In just over a decade, spurred by superstar Wayne Gretzky’s 1988 arrival in Los Angeles and the opening four years later of the Iceoplex rink in Van Nuys, adult hockey participation in the San Fernando Valley has grown from two teams and about 25 players to 87 teams and more than 1,300 players, including about 50 women.

On any night, about half a dozen contests in the California Senior Hockey League and the Burbank Senior Hockey League are held at Iceoplex, Pickwick Ice Arena in Burbank and Ice Capades Chalet in North Hollywood.

“Whenever we have to cancel a game, we get all kinds of complaints,” said Brad Berman, president of the California Senior Hockey League at Iceoplex. “People say we are ruining their week.”

Because Valley rinks reserve earlier hours for youth hockey, skating lessons, classes and public skating, the adult teams often don’t get on the ice before 9 p.m. Many games begin closer to midnight--and end near 2 a.m.

“This is a community,” said J.D. Lash, 33, who has played in the league for six years. “We’re all working people who would never have time for each other, but we make time for this. The game is our bond.”

Many players grew up on hockey. Lash, originally from Providence, R.I., and a student at Pepperdine School of Business and Management and Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, is typical of the many transplanted Easterners or Canadians who migrated here but could never abandon their love for the sport they left behind.

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“I figured my life in hockey was done,” said Dan Moriarty, 33, a Springfield, Mass., native who moved to Los Angeles in 1984 to pursue a career in acting. He has appeared in episodes of the TV shows “Full House” and “Who’s The Boss?” “I used to play in the pond in my back yard until my mom called me in for dinner.”

The leagues encompass a wide range of ability, from ex-college players and former NHL veterans--Ross Lonsberry, Rick Chartraw--to novices who just learned how to skate. Each league is broken into four divisions, with players rated according to their skills. A draft is held at the beginning of each season to place new players.

Most players live in Los Angeles, but some drive from as far away as Santa Barbara and Long Beach for 60 minutes of play. That’s despite the fact that there are about 150 other teams in Los Angeles-area adult hockey leagues at rinks in Culver City, Torrance, Pasadena and Thousand Oaks.

Statewide, this year, there are about 300 adult teams and 6,000 players, reports the California Amateur Hockey Assn. Nationally, according to USA Hockey in Colorado Springs, the country’s governing body for adult hockey, 2,465 teams and about 35,000 players registered for the 1991-92 season. Because many teams don’t register, Valley league officials estimate the total national figure to be double that amount.

Hockey is certainly not cheap entertainment. At Iceoplex, players pay $415 for a 20-game season; at Burbank, $435. This does not include hundreds more for players to maintain their skates, uniforms, pads and gloves. Poor equipment can lead to major injuries.

Of course, nobody is supposed to get hurt. Officially, league policy prohibits checking, which means players can’t slam their bodies into each other to stop an advance toward the net. Players get a good laugh out of that one.

“I call it no-checking, full contact,” said Mick Nahan, who plays in the over-30 division, reserved for the best players over 30 years old. Many played either in college or the professional ranks.

After one game in Burbank, Jeff Phillips, 24, went to Glendale Memorial Hospital to get six stitches to close a cut on his cheek after he banged into an opponent. His mother, Denise Newhoff, one of the few fans in attendance, hurried to the first-aid room and shook her head in disgust.

“I saw the same thing when they were 12 and 14,” said Newhoff, who hates hockey. “I thought it would get better as they got older, but it hasn’t. They’re animals.”

Yet some rely on the game to escape the more dangerous outside world.

Carmen Mormino, an actor, said hockey, even when it gets rough, is tame compared to the cutthroat world of Hollywood.

“There is so much rejection in acting,” said Mormino, 29, of Woodland Hills, who grew up in Chicago. “Here, when you make a mistake, everybody will say it’s OK. In acting, if you screw up at an audition, they say, ‘Next.’ ”

Upon arriving in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, Mormino searched for a hockey league before an acting class.

“I knew that without that, I’d go crazy,” said Mormino, who has acted in TV commercials and appeared on the daytime drama “General Hospital.”

His teammate, Ciro Marino, is equally devoted. Marino, 29, of Hollywood, became a Los Angeles Kings fan in the early 1970s, but was too busy playing football at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks to pursue hockey.

Finally, in 1986, he took skating lessons at Pickwick. The class was filled with 8-year-olds, providing him extra incentive.

“You don’t want to look like a big dummy in front of these kids who can skate circles around you,” said Marino, who owns an Italian restaurant in Hollywood. “I wish I had started when I was their age.”

Six months later, he was skating well enough to play hockey.

Now he’s the team’s self-appointed “enforcer,” shoving his 6-foot, 215-pound frame around to intimidate opponents.

He’s also skillful at friendly persuasion. Several weeks ago, he convinced his wife, who was eight months pregnant, to attend his game at the Iceoplex on her birthday.

“I took her out for dinner last night,” Marino explained that night.

Marino’s sister also came to the game, as did his mother, Alba, a short, fiery supporter who shouted insults in Italian at the referees when they failed to call penalties against the other team.

“I don’t get football or baseball,” said Alba Marino, who immigrated to the United States in 1955. “I don’t get this, either, but at least it’s alive.”

Games in the lower divisions usually attract about a dozen fans. As recent converts to the sport, the less talented players need all the encouragement they can get. One fan claims to have seen a “wave” in the stands one night.

Most players, however, don’t boast of cheering sections. Because of the ungodly hour, the bleachers are often empty.

“You play for the love of the game anyway,” said Tony Greasley, 34, who grew up in England and played professional hockey in Europe during much of the 1980s. “It doesn’t matter who is watching. Besides, my wife saw me play in Europe in front of 3,000 people when I was a pro. She’s going to come see me now? Here?”

Greasley, an independent electrical contractor in Valencia, plays for the Flames, perhaps the best team in the over-30 division.

After the game, Greasley is often the first to shower and rush to the rink’s restaurant for a cold one and a chance to review the game. Each contest is videotaped and played afterward on a big screen. It’s another chance to bond.

“That’s where we make fun of each other,” Greasley said. “We’ll stay for hours watching the game again.”

Sleep and the demands of the next workday become secondary.

“It’s so eerie when you get out that late,” Marino said. “You can forget about going to sleep right away. When you get home, it takes a long time to unwind. I have to watch television for a few hours to calm down.”

The game, after all, is only part of the scene. Once the buzzer sounds, it’s time to catch up on the latest week’s events, to escape, even if briefly, from the demands of encroaching middle age. Many professions are represented, from doctors and lawyers to aircraft technicians and schoolteachers. Many socialize away from the rink, too, throwing parties and going to dinner and movies together.

Moriarty and his teammates, who play at Pickwick every Monday night, make Dalt’s restaurant in Burbank, about a mile away, their weekly hangout. They drink beer and take stock. Many work in the entertainment industry, including film actor Adam Baldwin (“My Bodyguard”), television’s Dave Coulier (“Full House”) and TV producer David Kelley (“Picket Fences”), who recently married actress Michelle Pfeiffer.

“I would feel bad if I didn’t come here afterward,” said Mark Cendrowski, an associate director for NBC-TV’s “Nurses.” “This is what it’s about, and you don’t get this in other sports. That’s because as a kid in baseball or football, you’d come to the game dressed. In hockey, you got dressed in the locker room, and that helped people get to know each other, and it’s still true at our age.

“We’re not going to the Stanley Cup,” said Cendrowski, who played junior hockey as a teen-ager in Michigan. “Once you lose the tenacity of playing for your college, the camaraderie is all you latch on to.”

The schmoozing doesn’t take place just among teammates. The league is one large fraternity. Many players have known their opponents for years; some even grew up together back East. During the game, however, the intensity of the action dictates rough play, even the occasional fight. All is forgotten by the time the first pitcher of beer arrives.

At one recent game, Nahan, 41, was knocked to the ice by a much taller and younger opponent, who tried to hurl Nahan’s stick over the boards. Nahan stumbled to the bench in agony, complaining of a “burning back,” and glaring at the culprit who had made certain he’d wake up sore the next morning.

“The guy’s a meathead,” said Nahan while catching his breath. “My stick caught in his skates and he thought I did it on purpose. He’s lucky I let go of his leg. I could have broken his ankle.”

Still, two hours later in the restaurant, Nahan sat peacefully near the former meathead, who suddenly seemed like a decent guy.

“Most guys apologize afterward, and that’s what he did,” said Nahan, a prop man for television and films. “We can’t make this such a big deal.”

The sportsmanship also extends to women. Initially, male players played less aggressively against the opposite sex, but that quickly changed.

“Last year, I bumped into one girl on the ice and she screamed,” Mormino said, “and I knelt down. I thought I had hurt her, but she was OK. You have to realize that women will take the puck away from you just like anybody else, and anyone can hurt you in this league.”

The women say they receive fair treatment from the vast majority of the male athletes. Altogether, about 25 of the 87 teams have at least one woman.

“They are really supportive, and really happy to have me playing with them,” said Loretta Figueroa, 30, of Burbank, who took up the sport in May. “I don’t stop them from bonding. I don’t care what they say in front of me, because I’m in their arena.”

Mitch Pain, 35, wishes he could be in Wayne Gretzky’s arena. Actually, he once was.

Pain grew up in Gretzky’s hometown of Brantford, Ontario, and recalls, with some agony, the day their paths crossed.

He was 12, and playing hockey at a double rink. Finally, after struggling to get a good shot, he scored a goal and searched the crowd immediately to catch his father’s reactions. His father wasn’t there.

“He was with all the other parents,” said Pain, of Simi Valley. “They were all looking at Gretzky. He was already popular.”

After college, Pain gave up the sport. He came to Los Angeles in 1986, and got work in marketing for land developers. He soon rediscovered his passion, and these days, plays twice a week.

His teammate, Scott Pierce, is equally committed. Pierce hurt his back off the ice recently, but still came to the rink for a 9 p.m. game, cheering his teammates from the rink-side restaurant. Skates or no skates, he had to be there.

“It’s in our blood,” said Pierce, 39, of Chatsworth. “You miss the team spirit. Work doesn’t provide it for you. Nothing else provides it for you.”

Where and When What: Adult hockey. Location: California Senior Hockey League at the Iceoplex, 8345 Hayvenhurst Ave., Van Nuys, and Burbank Senior Hockey League at the Pickwick Ice Center, 1001 Riverside Drive, Burbank. Hours: 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. nightly. League Dues: $415 for CSHL; $435 at BSHL. Call: (818) 893-3424 at Iceoplex; (818) 846-0035 at Pickwick.