By Doug Hare EBS STAFF
BIG SKY – On Jan. 12, red and white
Detroit Red Wings jerseys flooded the Town Center ice rink on a crisp, sunny
Saturday. At noon, a team of Big Sky youth took on challengers from Bozeman,
the first “home game” ever for local youth hockey players.
“Fantastic day. It was great to see
50 kids out there competing. It reminded me of my youth spent playing hockey
outside in Canada,” said Marty Pavelich, former Red Wings legend and the
namesake of the event. “When I first moved out here there wasn’t anywhere to
play hockey, so I’m thrilled with this development.”
A newly acquired, used Zamboni
machine resurfaced the rink before two teams of local adult hockey players took
to the ice for a friendly exhibition match marking the ninth annual Pavelich
Invitational Hockey Game.
Pavelich has been impressed with the
rink’s improvements since last year—including a new refrigeration system and a
new location that was leveled for less gradation end-to-end than its
predecessor—noting that efforts from volunteers like Ryan Blechta and Gary
Hermann have been essential to the recent progress. But the former NHL star
also predicts more enhancements in the future.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a stadium
here one day. The current location and lighting are great, but I can picture a
stadium that could hold 5,000 people and host different events throughout the
year,” Pavelich said. “I’ve seen it done before. They did it in Vail. It would
be a great place to build community in this town.”
Pavelich said he hopes that one day
a Big Sky athlete will be able to get an NCAA scholarship to a school with a
strong hockey program. “That would make all the effort worth it,” he said. “Who
knows? They could even make it all the way to the NHL.”
