The Kenai River Brown Bears Junior A hockey team and the North American Hockey League are continuing their ongoing struggle to ensure a Junior A hockey season for the 2020-21 season. The Brown Bears are incorporating major changes working toward a season start.
Kenai River Brown Bears General Manager Chris Hedlund explains the plan for starting the hockey season on the road.
“We’re excited. We’ve made a decision to move forward for the 2020-21 season. Starting in Minnesota gives us a great opportunity to be around long term, get through the season and have a great opportunity back on the peninsula again this season. In the end, we’re going to start in Minnesota, you probably heard that Fairbanks made the same announcement. We’re going to do our training camp down here; we’re going to do the first portion of our season down here just because of all the travel restrictions and protocols for getting players in and out of the state (Alaska). We’ll do our first home and road games down here(Minnesota). If all goes well our goal would be to come back after the Christmas break for the second portion-I hate to call it the second half because its a bigger chuck on the backside. It’s not split like normal because we’re delayed by a month and we intentionally, as a division, pushed our dates back. Right now, our commitment is mid-January because that’s when our home games would start in Alaska, barring any concerns with COVID restrictions on travel that’s really what’s guiding when we come back.”
The Brown Bears home base in Minnesota will be in Anoka, Minnesota and home games will be played in an arena in Breezy Point, Minnesota.
Hedlund explains plan for practices, housing and road contests in Minnesota.
“Like traditionally for the past few years we will be working out of Anoka, Minnessota as our home rink; that’s been established through the league. We’ve been working with them for the last three or four years when we’re on the road we’ve spent time there. Two weekends of home games-we’ll play those at Breezy Point at their arena. They are a former NACHL team that went dormant this year and we are going to use their local rink as they are completely set up for fast hockey. They have all the structure so we are going to use their rink for our two home weekends that are before Christmas break, but we’re going to practice and house out of Anoka, Minnessota.”
The NAHL announced in late July that the start of the 2020-21 season would be moved back to October 9th. The league stating that they were committed to playing a full schedule of regular season games for the 2020-21 hockey season. The revised schedule will be released in mid-September.
Members of the NAHL, the Corpus Christi Ice Rays and the Kansas City Scouts, have opted out of the upcoming season, more teams may take that route in the upcoming days.
