On Nov. 21, the Mandan Starion Sports Complex held its first high school hockey game.
“I think the complex is really good for Mandan because we’ve always been a step behind everyone,” Taley Davis said. “I think it’s not only good for hockey, but all sports.”
The girls hockey game was a 6-3 loss against Minot, but the day was much bigger than just the final result.
“Pretty good,” Hannah Peterson said. “We were a little bit upset with our first loss, but we got back in the second game and won it in overtime.”
The sports complex has two new sheets of ice and is an upgrade to what the school called home last year, the Pepsi All Seasons Arena.
“It’s a huge step up,” Davis said. “Now, we have two rinks instead of just one. We also have double the locker rooms that we had. Everything is updated and nice.”
The added benefit is now the girls don’t have to wait until late in the evening to practice.
“We had to practice after the boys,” Peterson said, “so we get done later. Our other young club teams usually had to practice until 11 at night sometimes. It’ll be nice to have everyone get done earlier.”
Senior girls on the team are happy they are apart of the first team to compete at the arena.
“It’s cool that we get to be here,” Peterson said. “We get to try it out. It’s kind of sad that we didn’t get it earlier for other seniors to try out. So it’s cool that I got one more year on it.”
Mandan is back on the ice Tuesday against the defending state champs: The Bismarck Blizzard.
