Throughout its history, Minnesota’s Iron Range has raised some tremendous hockey talent and been the scene of some of the state’s most memorable youth and high school games, but it has never hosted a North American Hockey League game.
That will change later this month.
The Minnesota Wilderness has reached an agreement with the Iron Trail Motors Event Center to play one game at the Virginia, MN, facility. The Wilderness will take on its Midwest Division rival, the Chippewa Steel, at the 2-year-old arena on Oct. 28 at 7:15 p.m.
Wilderness general manager David Boitz said the deal was made to express gratitude to the city of Virginia when it was quick to offer help when the junior A team was seeking a temporary home to start the season when its home – the Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet — could not make ice due to a cooling tower malfunction. The Wilderness eventually chose the St. Luke’s Sports and Event Center in Proctor to practice and play games through the month of September and planned to return to Northwoods Credit Union Arena after its 2-week Alaska trip beginning this weekend. Yet, some Cloquet arena officials recommended that Boitz make sure he had a plan B in case cooling tower repairs were not yet complete in time for its Oct. 20 game.
“In September, when there was still no high confidence that the ice would be ready for our October games, it was suggested by the arena staff in Cloquet that we have a backup plan,” said Boitz.
“The city of Virginia was the very first to offer assistance when hearing about our ice problem. We originally scheduled both October games in Virgina. After getting word that the ice was ready in Cloquet, we made the decision to still play one of the games up there out of respect for their generosity of making their arena available for us to play.”
Cloquet will get to host the Wilderness for the first time in the 2023-24 season on Oct. 20, for a contest which will also feature Chippewa as the visitor.
The Iron Trail Motors Event Center is currently the home of Rock Ridge High School’s boys and girls hockey teams. It opened in 2021 with two ice rinks. The arena that will host the Wilderness and Steel can seat 2,000 spectators.
The North American Hockey League is a United States-based junior A league made up of 32 teams located in 20 states. It is the only tier 2 junior A league in the USA recognized by USA Hockey. In 2022-23, the NAHL saw 380 of its players commit to play hockey at NCAA institutions with 260 of those going to division 1 programs.