Treasure Island Resort and Casino had the warm hum of a midseason celebration on Thursday, November 20, as the Hockey Day Minnesota (HDM) 2026 Committee and the Prairie Island Indian Community hosted a jersey reveal party that mixed community pride with a sense of history. The high school teams set to skate on Saturday of Hockey Day finally saw their special sweaters, the ones fans had been waiting months to see, even if no one except the players will wear them.
The event drew families, players, volunteers, and supporters who wandered through the Event Center with HDM cookies and Spiral Brewery’s Hockey Day Haze-Tings. Kids rotated between the games set up along the walls while parents chatted under banners and lights. Fans were easy to spot in their familiar gear, many of them wearing the current line of Hockey Day Minnesota Hastings merchandise that has been on sale through the past year.
Local media lined up cameras as the Minnesota Wild prepared to help present the full set of six jerseys for Saturday’s high school games. As players walked out wearing them, Hastings Mayor Mary Fasbender stood off to the side, watching the kids pull at their sleeves and families raise their phones. She summed up the moment with a smile. “How proud this community is, how excited these children are to see them walk in here with their jerseys on,” she said, adding that the reveal “is truly the start of Hockey Day” for Hastings. She called the emotion and excitement in the room “wonderful.”
With less than two months until Hockey Day Minnesota arrives, Fasbender acknowledged that the planning is entering its frantic final stretch. She praised the volunteer committee, saying “this committee has done such amazing work,” and described the next few weeks as the time when all the individual efforts finally merge. “We all come together for the same vision, and we make it the best it can be,” she said, confident that the community is ready to “knock it out of the park.”
Still, the event cannot run on excitement alone. Fasbender said organizers will need 80 to 90 volunteers on single weekend days. Volunteers from the surrounding communities are absolutely welcome, especially with the impact this event will have on the region. She encouraged anyone willing to help to reach out through the hockey website, the committee’s social media pages, or directly to organizers. She also asked residents and visitors to stay patient during the busiest days of January, noting that the crowds and traffic will stretch from downtown to South Town and West Town. There will be lines and long walks, she said, but also the kind of energy that turns a winter week into something unforgettable.
Sponsors such as Treasure Island, Twin Cities Orthopedics, Pella Windows, and Cub continue to play crucial roles. The event will also benefit all of Hastings Hockey and United Heroes League, causes Fasbender said will be among “the true winners of all this.” The economic impact throughout Hastings will be significant, and the pride of hosting the 20th anniversary of Hockey Day Minnesota will stay with the community long after the rink boards come down.
The Park girls’ team was invited to the event, but they, along with St. Thomas Academy, both had games scheduled that night, so they were unable to attend. The jersey was shown and discussed as part of the event and received a warm welcome when shown. The color scheme for the jersey is an off-white base for middle stripe which has a large, old school “P” in the middle. The green colors are the perfect mix creating the camo look to honor the branches of the US Military, a fitting nod given the host site, United Heroes League’s, ties to military families.
The high school slate for Saturday, January 24 features the Hastings Raiders girls opening at 9:30 a.m. against Park Cottage Grove, followed by the Raiders Boys at 1 p.m. versus East Ridge. Rock Ridge and St. Thomas Academy will close the high school schedule at 4:30 p.m.
By then, the cookies, the music, and the preview night at Treasure Island will be memories. The jerseys unveiled on this November evening will carry far more than numbers when they finally hit the ice. They will carry the story of how cities and schools came together to make Hockey Day their own.