Summit Hockey’s biggest annual fundraiser returns this weekend to Stephen C. West Ice Arena in Breckenridge with many acquainted neighborhood faces and journeying celebrities, all main as much as Saturday nighttime’s superstar shootout and championship sport. Each year, the Summit Hockey Classic divides nearby skaters and journeying celebrities, including a few former National Hockey League specialists, into four different groups: Breckenridge Grand Vacations, Vail-Summit Orthopaedics, Copper Mountain, and Beaver Run. Captains associated with each of the four corporations drafted sides for the remaining month, and play began Friday night with the semifinal spherical.
Friday night’s semifinal effects have been no longer available at press time. Chris Miller, the director of Summit Youth Hockey, stated that the once-a-year occasion in its twenty-second 12 months goes a long way to funding Summit Youth Hockey’s scholarships — as many as 20 percent of the company’s annual fundraising efforts.
“Ice expenses over $210 an hour, and in case you multiply that via an entire season, that’s some cash,” Miller stated after Thursday’s unfastened skate at Stephen C. West Ice Arena earlier in the event. “Our purpose is to make hockey on hand for anybody.” Miller might be skating for VSO once more this year. He said the fine part of the traditional is always equal: being around hockey lifers and chatting about the game. “The stories the pros inform us, and simply being in a room with a bunch of humans in the community and feeling like you’re part of a group for the weekend,” Miller said. “Seeing how our community comes collectively and helps our little association. And this region is filled. You get to feel like a celeb for a couple of days.”
Miller stated that one of the professionals gambling for the first time this year was Ben Scrivens, who performed in the NHL from 2011 to 2016 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Los Angeles Kings, the Montreal Canadiens, and the Edmonton Oilers. This weekend, Scrivens, even though, will play out of the aim at the ice. One of the professionals in intention will be Marty Wakelyn, a former member of the NHL’s New York Islanders. After 15 years, this can be Wakelin’s very last Summit Hockey Classic, and this weekend, he can have the chance to play against his son Dougie. Like Marty, Dougie may even play as a goaltender this weekend, as Dougie performed as a goalie for the Breckenridge Bolts last year.
As part of this weekend’s festivities, Miller said Summit Hockey would honor one of their children, Taylor Ash, for Saturday’s championship recreation. Ash, a junior at Summit High School and a member of Summit Hockey’s U-19 ladies’ team hasn’t been able to play this season due to an analysis of the rare bone’s most common cancer, osteosarcoma.
“It’s been a real bummer that she hasn’t performed this year, and it’s affected the affiliation,” Miller said. “So we just desired to do something we may want to help.” Other celeb gamers this year include former Colorado Avalanche, Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals player Rick Berry; old Minnesota North Star Rick Boh; Darryl Bootland; Brian Canady; Nate Davis; Taylor Hustead; Nick Larson; former Colorado Avalanche participant Aaron MacKenzie; former St. Louis Blue Peter Sejna; former Blues, Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres, Dallas Stars, Avalanche and Islanders participant Pierre Turgeon; and old Columbus Blue Jacket Duvie Westcott.
