Wild, Quake set for outdoor game on New Year's Day
December 31, 2014
Sheridan on Skates will host the second annual Wyoming Winter Classic hockey game on New Year’s Day at 4pm.
For the second year in a row, the Yellowstone Quake will take on the Gillette Wild for an outdoors hockey game at Sheridan Ice. Both teams are members of the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL). Gillette won last year’s inaugural Winter Classic, 7-4.
The game is an exhibition game and will not count in the NA3HL regular season standings. The Wild are 4-0 against the Quake so far this season.
“These teams play a great game of hockey with a higher level of skill, intensity and speed than we typically see on our ice,” Sheridan on Skates board member and high school hockey coach Zane Garstad said. “Playing on an outdoor rink is new and novel to many of these players and will add to the spectator experience. They’re also excited to play here one more time before we enclose our rink in 2015.”
New to the Winter Classic this year is between-period hockey-style barrel racing featuring Sheridan’s PeeWees, 11- and 12-year-old student-athletes who compete against other teams within the Wyoming Amateur Hockey League.