The Kenai River Brown Bears, Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association and RedLine Sports are teaming up to celebrate USA Hockey’s Hockey Week Across America.
Hockey Week Across America was created in 2008 by USA Hockey to celebrate the sport at all levels, and also to try and expose a wider audience to hockey.
Vince Redford, who is organizing the event on the central Kenai Peninsula, said the area is making a big deal of Hockey Week Across American for the first time.
“It’s something we always wanted to do and it’s something we think the community should be doing,” Redford said. “Fairbanks makes a big deal of it.
“It’s something fun for us to do to grow the sport, and it’s something that’s fun for the kids.”
Hockey week on the peninsula includes a number of things.
A Squirt round-robin tournament started Wednesday and will run through Saturday. Saturday at the Kenai Multi-Purpose Facility, the Under-10 girls will play Nikiski at 10:30 a.m., there will be a skills competition at 11:45 a.m., Squirt 2 will play Nikiski at 2:30 p.m. and Squirt 1 will play the Under-10 girls at 3:45 p.m.
The skills competition at the Kenai Multi-Purpose Facility on Saturday is the on-ice skills competition. There also will an off-ice skills competition at the sports complex during the day Friday and Saturday, featuring things like hardest shot and most accurate shot. Redford said the skills competition will be separated according to age and skill level, with winners receiving gift certificates.
The sports complex will also have indoor booths with cheap games, and a sledding hill and street hockey in the parking lot Friday and Saturday.
Hockey week also includes games for adults.
Friday at the Soldotna Regional Sports C0mplex, there will be a Queens game at 5:30 p.m. The Queens is a women’s adult league. The Brown Bears will face off against Tier I Rusty Blades at 7:30 p.m. Donations for entry to both games is being accepted at the door.
Saturday, there will be a broom ball game at the sports complex at 5:30 p.m., open to anybody who wants to try it.
The event concludes with a spaghetti feed and band fundraiser for the Brown Bears. Entrance to just the spaghetti feed is $5 per person. Entrance to the feed and the band is $20 per person or $30 per couple. Just the band is $15 per person or $20 per couple.
Beer will be served at the Friday night hockey games, plus the Saturday spaghetti feed and band show. The band show is only for those 21 and over.
