Hockey Fans Will Get Their Fill During 6th Annual Hockey Day

TAMPA, FL – It’s the day Tampa Bay Lightning fans look forward to all year. The Lightning will host its sixth annual Hockey Day in Tampa Bay on Sunday, March 4, at the Amalie Arena, home of the Lightning.

The full-day event will kick off at 9 a.m. with a Chase Lightning Made Street Hockey Tournament outdoors in the Silver Lot and on Ford Thunder Alley.

Chase Lightning Made Street Hockey is a new program hosted by the Lightning organization aimed at showing youth in grades three to six that you don’t need ice to play hockey.

The tournament will run until 4 p.m. All children participating will receive lunch courtesy of PDQ and Dasani water provided by Coca-Cola Beverages Florida.

Simultaneously, the National Hockey League Players’ Association’s Learn to Play jamboree will run from 9 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. inside the arena.

The Learn to Play program is designed to give children a chance to learn the sport with certified coaches and NHL alumni in a fun, safe environment.

Afterward, it’s the girls’ turn for some ice time. The Lightning Made Girls Scrimmage will be held from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Lightning Made Girls is a program that gives girls age 8 to 14 a chance to play ice hockey in a league of their own.

Next, the sled hockey teams will have their turn at center ice. The Lightning Sled Hockey Team will battle the Space Coast sled hockey team from 1:15 to 2:15 p.m. Developed for players with physical disabilities, sled hockey incorporates the use of specially designed sleds on top of two hockey skate blades.

Also on tap, the Honda Lightning High School Hockey League All-Star Game will begin at 2:45 p.m. It includes the star players of the past season from the 17 Lightning Hockey High School League teams. Each team will send two players in a showdown between the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference.

The highlight of Hockey Day will be the Spectrum Battle of the Badges, a matchup between local firefighters and police officers with some help from Lightning alumni including Dave Andreychuk, Jassen Cullimore, Vinny Prospal, Adam Hall and Ruslan Fedotenko. The puck-drop for the first responders' game is scheduled for 4:15 p.m.

In between the games, hockey fans can explore the used Lightning equipment sale at Section 128 and meet ThunderBug who will be on hand to assist Coke Florida in commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Tampa Bay Lightning by handing out limited-edition bottles of Coke.

Fans can attend all the events at Amalie Arena for free, but a suggested donation of $10 is recommended to help fund the Lightning sled hockey program and Boys & Girls Club of Tampa's Hockey is For Everyone program.

For more information, visit the Hockey Day website.

Image via Tampa Bay Lightning