Vintage Minnesota Hockey - History

Vintage Minnesota Hockey Take:

20,000 fans - 500+ volunteers. This is How We Hockey was the motto for #HDM2022 in southern Minnesota Mankato for the 2022 hockey day Minnesota festivities - the farthest southern city in Minnesota for HDM to date.  The official game program for HDM as shown proclaimed it was the 15th Annual Hockey Day, where as the telecast on Bally Sports North (BSN) proclaimed it as the 16th Annual year.  The event committee in Mankato had an extra year to plan & prepare due to COVID making sure HDM in the Maverick country wouldn't be un-done and promised to be the biggest and best showcase yet for HDM's illustrious 16 year history that began in 2007 on Baudette Bay, and the Maverick faithful didn't disappoint!  It truly was a festival of festivals, party of parties, and a Minnesota hockey celebration of celebrations - and is truly remarkable what HDM has now become over the years from it's humble beginning next to Willie the Walleye park as a single Hockey DAY, to a week long Hockey WEEK with over 5 days of games as apart of the main HDM on Saturday.  From the adjacent festival, vendor, food & beverage trucks, two Nice-Rink skating and boot hockey rinks for fans to take part in activities, and an enormously LARGE heated tent with night-time concerts on Thursday night in Johnny Holm band, and Shane Martin Friday night made it one of the largest to date hockey festival areas of HDM that rivals that what St. Cloud HDM set the prior mark.  The refrigerated ice sheet on the field of dreams that Vikings WR Adam Thielen etched his legacy atop the grassy playing surface, where the main rink was held at Blakeslee Stadium - home of Mav Football and former Minnesota Vikings training camps which made this feel like a mini NHL Stadium Series outdoor game, that will likely become the new benchmark of who can outdue what Duluth started with the adjacent festival park, St. Cloud tuned up, to what Mankato put the exclamation mark on the end of the sentence in 2022!  In usual fashion for prior Hockey Day Minnesotas' of yesteryears, weather has played a large factor in the days story from; Baudette extreme cold, Moorhead warm/sunny day ice fell apart, Grand Rapids extreme wind across the lake, Hermantown rain made ice mushy, Bemidji VERY frigid temp, to Minnetonka - where literally no outdoor ice was made and was moved sadly indoors.  Mankato can add to that weather played a factor list with snow....LOTS of snow that fell for another first at Hockey Day, a MEN'S outdoor collegiate game that was held on the outdoor rink for the broadcast/televised HDM between the home-town Mavs vs. newcomer to the D1 Men's hockey scene in St. Thomas.  During play stoppage and TV timeouts it required an army of local volunteers on skates, and the ever hard-working Arena Warehouse team to clear the snow accumulation that fell & fell.  An estimated over 10,000 people packed the stands to see the Mav mascot Stomper give high fives to fans, when the home team truly stompered the visiting Tommies 7-1 behind Sophomore #10 David Silye hat-trick under the lights and snow.  David was asked in the post game presser: when was the last time you scored a hat-trick? "A long time ago in Canada as a kid" he exclaimed with a grin, who growing up himself in Ontario, Canada "will remember this day forever playing with my teammates [that] brought back memories of my youth playing outdoors".

Another 1st for this HDM occurred when the host cities H.S. team was NOT apart of the actual broadcasted/televised games on the actual Hockey Day Minnesota.  A few HDM purists were quite upset about this leading up to the days festivities on social media, but was all washed away seeing the excitement first hand in person of the smiles of the players that participated from both Mankato East & West, coaches, referees and fans alike that packed Blakeslee that we witnessed first hand in person.

A huge stick-tap to ALL involved in the planning, execution, and festivities that