A hockey stick relay will culminate with the opening face-off for the Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour stop in St. Albert.
The relay, featuring a specially made red hockey stick for the event, will start at Akinsdale Arena and end at St. Anne Street in time for the start of Canada’s ultimate hockey festival March 5-6.
“We wanted this to be like the Olympics. It’s going to be for the opening, which is noon, so we’re hoping to do the face-off at noon,” said Holly Tanner, the St. Albert Minor Hockey Association administrator and member of the organizing committee for the City of St. Albert. “We just don’t have all the details one hundred per cent in place but that’s the plan as of right now.”
The route has been confirmed but the start time still has to be finalized.
The first of 10 relay runners/walkers will leave Akinsdale Arena, head down Hebert Road then turn right onto Cunningham Road and go straight to Sir Winston Churchill Avenue, where the route swings left before turning right onto Perron Street, then left onto St. Thomas Street to St. Anne Street.
Larry Mitchell, St. Albert’s hockey historian, will take the relay stick on the last leg for a short distance to the ceremonial face-off and Mayor Nolan Crouse is expected to drop the puck to kick off the two-day celebration of all things hockey.
“We’re just not sure whether they’re going to have a stage yet, so the plan is if they have a stage then Larry will take the stick up the stage and put it down as if he is going to be doing a face-off and of course we’re hoping it’s going to be with Mark Messier,” Tanner said.
Mitchell, 80, is pretty pumped to play a prominent role in the relay.
“It’s a pretty neat feeling. It’s something I never expected ever to do,” said the community icon through his involvement with the St. Albert Gazette sports department. “I guess having been involved in hockey for 50 some years here it’s a pretty good honour to have.”
It was a no brainer for the committee to have Mitchell anchor the relay.
“We all thought who better than Larry Mitchell, who is the historian for hockey. Everybody knows Larry,” Tanner said of Mitchell, who has his name engraved on the community’s recognition monument that honours people, couples, groups and businesses that made significant contributions to St. Albert.
Larry Mitchell Day in St. Albert was also celebrated Sept. 6, 2011.
The rest of the relay runners/walkers will include individuals selected through the Tell Us Your Story letter writing campaign, as well as others connected through hockey and the community.
Parents, coaches, players and fans can share their greatest hockey story by submitting letters to Andrea Aschenbrenner at [email protected] or Tanner at [email protected], as well as posting them directly on The Community of St. Albert Facebook Page.
St. Albert hockey teams can also enter the Cheer Like Never Before contest for the opportunity to win the ultimate hockey experience. Teams can upload a video of their team cheer, with the top five vote getters invited to take part in the tour stop festivities in St. Albert. The winning team in each of the 24 communities on the tour stop will then be in the running to win a trip to the April 9 game between the Edmonton Oilers and Canucks in Vancouver. The VIP game day experience will include performing the team cheer in the Canucks’ dressing room.
Visit www.hometownhockey.com for contest details.
Five St. Albert teams were also chosen through a random draw online by Tanner for VIP privileges on the second day of the tour stop. The winning teams are the midget B female Panthers, initiation 1 team 3, atom Red Sox, peewee Storm and novice Thunder.
St. Albert minor hockey will also host a barbecue on both days of the tour stop, presented by Scotiabank and Dodge.
St. Albert, Calgary and Grande Prairie are the only Alberta communities on the tour, covering all 10 provinces and one territory in its second season of bringing fans closer to the stars of the game while exploring the deep hockey roots in every location.
Tour stop host Ron MacLean and sideline reporter Tara Slone will be joined by Messier, Lanny MacDonald and other special guests.
St. Anne Street, from Perron Street to Sir Winston Churchill Avenue, is the site for the hockey-themed weekend of games, activities, live local entertainment and food trucks. It’s very family focused and free, from 12 to 6 p.m. March 5 and 11 a.m. to the end of the outdoor viewing party for the March 6 game between the Edmonton Oilers against the host Winnipeg Jets on Sportsnet, starting at 4:30 p.m. with a special pre-game show hosted live by MacLean from the Sportsnet Mobile Studio.
The St. Albert Public Library and Musee Heritage Museum also have a variety of hockey-related activities scheduled both days.
“This is a big deal. I mean how exciting is it to know that we’re going to have Mark Messier here and Lanny McDonald here and we already have Rob Brown and Chris Joseph and many more,” Tanner said.
“This is a great way to bring the community together and maybe even to bring people in from outside of the community to see what we’re all about and how much we all love hockey because what a lot of people don’t understand is St. Albert is the largest hockey association west of Toronto,” Tanner added of the 110 teams and close to 1,800 players in the association.
It’s expected more than 10,000 people per day will experience the festival. The exposure nation-wide will also be enormous.
“It’s going to put us on the map a little bit more than what we’ve had before,” Mitchell said. “The end result is if we end up winning the (tour stop) event we’re going to renovate Akinsdale Arena by putting in a warm-up space in the building, which we don’t have now. With hockey getting so technical with some things it’s almost a must now that you have that type of thing and we just don’t have it so that will be a big plus.”
A full schedule of events – including autograph times with Messier and McDonald, a list of bands that will perform on the outdoor stage, plus park and ride and parking information – will be gradually updated on the Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour website, as well as www.stalbert.ca and in the Gazette.
