Shooting Portraits on ice, lighting question

I've been asked to do "still action" and headshots for a local youths hockey league. Yes, hockey does go on without the NHL

I've shot action at hockey, and basically taken the lighting as I've found it.

I'm looking for tips on handling flash and lighting for these portraits, see if I can improve on the normal reflection off the ice.

These shots are being used for making hockey cards as gifts from the kids for Christmas, and I have a print and graphic supplier that wants me to pick up his local shooting.

Setup and shoot is being paid up front for a decent market rate, with printing and delivery of photos being handled by the printer.

I just want to make it the best possible.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

If you can't set up studio lights, use your on camera flash with a bracket. Go for a longer focal length than wider (i.e. 50mm+). Take a meter reading of the ambient light. Try and match that with your flashed shutter speed and aperture (so the background doesn't go black). Don't go below 1/60. On a D60, I wouldn't shoot any faster than 400 ISO. If you can, use some sort of kicker light with your on camera flash to fill the background if it's to dark.

Thanks NGrinerPhoto,

I was afraid about the studio setup, but it looks like it will be close to that

I'm not too worried about the background, as I will be shooting center-ice, red and blue line, to avoid the flash return from the glass on the side. This will leave lots of room for depth of field and I can leave the shutter speed quite slow. The only acception being the goalie who will be shot in the net (no pun intended :P )

Metering, off-camera flash and timing are great tips, and I thank you.

I'll just have to practice off-ice in the local arena before shooting this one, ice time is hard to get and I don't want to lose too much of their practice time.

Thanks again.