Woodbury Youth Hockey Team Plays During Minnesota Wild Game

There’s a Woodbury Hockey Association team that usually plays in front of a crowd of no more than 50.

During a brief intra-squad scrimmage Thursday night, their fans numbered in the thousands.

The Woodbury Super Mite 2-Royal played between the first and second periods of the Minnesota Wild game versus the Vancouver Canucks at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

“It was really a fun experience,” said head coach Mark Singer.

The team—comprised of 14 second- and third-graders—also got to go “into the belly” of the NHL team’s arena and watch the pros get ready for the game, Singer said.

Several players acknowledged the youngsters with waves and a few hellos as they headed out on the ice, Singer said.

One of the kids asked a player if he was Mats Sundin, Singer said. “He said, ‘I’m much better looking than Sundin.’”

“And Dany Heatley gave us a wink,” Singer said.

The event came about after Singer got an email regarding the possibility of having a youth hockey team play during a Wild game. A Wild official told him 10 other coaches had called, but he was first.

The Woodbury team sold 88 tickets as part of the arrangement, said Singer—who plunked down $700 initially to get things rolling—and plenty of family and friends came to the arena for the game.

The mites were a bit nervous before hitting a rink normally reserved for the pros, Singer said.

“I asked my son Mick what he thought about playing in front of 15,000 people. He said, ‘I’m kind of scared, Dad,’” Singer said. “I told him that it’s a rink just like any other you’ve played on.”

One parent emailed Singer on Friday to report that his child said it was the best day of his life. The kids played for three or four minutes, Singer said.

The mites played well—with the Wild mascot acting as referee—and the crowd responded with “oohs and ahhs” whenever a nice play was made, he said. One Woodbury player was interviewed afterward and it was shown on the jumbotron.

“It was just really cool,” Singer said.

He said it was also neat to see how the NHL players responded to seeing the kids: “They were at that point at one point in their lives.”

“It’s still a game, even at the pro level, it’s still a game when it all boils down,” Singer said. “Their eyes lit up just as much as ours.”

Editor’s note: Check out the PDF with the story for the team’s roster. Also, a youth hockey jamboree is scheduled for Feb. 24-26 at the and Harding arena.