Playing at a National Hockey League (NHL) arena is every hockey player’s dream that doesn’t often come true. But on Jan. 11, the Eureka Hockey Club experienced that dream by playing at the St. Louis Blues home rink, the Enterprise Center.
“Enterprise was a surreal experience. Stepping onto the ice was unreal seeing all the stands and the big jumbotron. It was an amazing experience,” Defenseman Logan Kem, 12, said.
The Wildcats capped it off with a 4-1 win against the St. Xavier Tigers from Louisville, Kentucky. The Tigers travel every year to a different city to play in that city’s NHL rink. The Wildcats got the call to play the Tigers after the original opponent dropped out.
“Originally the team we played there was coming up from Kentucky to play Webster Groves. Webster ended up backing out, there was a connection between our coach and the rink staff so he was the one who set up the game,” Kem said.
Playing in the hometown NHL rink can bring pressure, but also motivation. For the Wildcats, this game brought motivation as they tried to capitalize on this once in a lifetime experience. Defenseman Ben Devine, 11, explains his motivation going into the game.
“It definitely got us more motivated because we were all so excited to play in our hometown’s NHL rink,” Devine said.
Enterprise hosts approximately 175 events per year, which brings nearly 2 million guests to downtown St. Louis annually and ranking it among one of the top arenas in the country. Enterprise Center hosts events like hockey games, concerts, ice shows, family shows and other sporting events. Devine talks about how the quality of a high-tech arena is different from normal rinks.
“The facility was definitely way nicer than the other rinks because we were playing in an NHL standard rink, so there was anything and everything you wanted in there,” Devine said.
Forward Mitchell Barth, 12, compared the differences of Enterprise compared to a normal rink.
“There was obviously way more security to get in, and everything was under the stands, unlike other rinks that just put locker rooms on the same floor,” Barth said.
Playing at Enterprise could be the highlight of the season for the Wildcats. As they close out their season, they look to win more games and go into the playoffs.
“For the rest of the season we’re going to try and win games to make it out of the round robin for playoffs to hopefully win the midstates cup,” Kem said.
