This weekend’s Brice Alaska Goal Rush, the ninth annual Fairbanks-hosted showcase, will be inevitably overshadowed by somber outlooks for the state’s NCAA athletic programs.
Economic woes have inflicted overwhelming budget deficits throughout Alaska. In an effort to trim $50 million from the deficit, the state’s university system detailed that one option could be to eliminate one or both of the Division I college hockey teams in Fairbanks and Anchorage.
However, if the Nanooks and/or instate rival Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves do leave the varsity ranks, it need not signal the end of college hockey in Alaska altogether. If the Nanooks are the only sacrifice, it need not even mark the end of the NCAA’s presence in Fairbanks.
Indeed, the case can be made for the Alaska Goal Rush to sustain the Carlson Center’s participation in Division I hockey. Other facilities, states and localities have held annual four-team tournaments despite lacking a college program in the vicinity.
The Florida College Hockey Classic at Estero’s Germain Arena is the standard-bearer on that front, having started its tradition in 2000. Through its first 16 editions, it has given fans an opportunity to travel to a warmer location during the winter months and see their team take on intense competition from the likes of Cornell, Maine, Boston College, New Hampshire, Miami, Minnesota-Duluth and Providence.
These kinds of tournaments also benefit the players. They get to play for a championship trophy that may elude them in their college years while showing scouts their skills in a setting charged with a playoff-like atmosphere.
The Florida Everblades website boasts that nearly 40 players have gone on to suit up for the ECHL team after playing in this tournament.
More recently, Belfast, Northern Ireland, has presented an example of why NCAA hockey succeeding in areas devoid of a regular program, even beyond the continental United States. The inaugural Friendship Four (or Belpot), featuring UMass-Lowell, Northeastern, Brown and Colgate, was an instant success last autumn, attracting 20,000 fans to the four games and streaming to millions more in North America.
There were, in turn, hardly any qualms about giving the overseas showcase a second go-around.
“The Council is delighted to be the main sponsor of the Friendship Four ice-hockey festival – for the second year in a row,” said Lord Mayor Alderman Brian Kingston in an interview with Sports News Ireland. “This prestigious tournament will showcase Belfast globally – boosting tourism and building on our economic, academic and cultural links with the United States. It was a great success last year and I know that it will be even bigger and better this year.”
This year, Quinnipiac, Vermont, St. Lawrence and Massachusetts will participate in the tournament’s encore.
“This is another great opportunity for Quinnipiac University, our program and for college hockey,” Bobcats head coach Rand Pecknold told the Irish Echo.
“Fairbanks is a hockey town,” says Nanooks coach Dallas Ferguson, who declares the Alaska Goal Rush, “a great introduction for our new players to see the type of wonderful people we have here in our community.”
(Photo credit: University of Alaska Media Relations)
“Quinnipiac President John Lahey has made incredible strides in expanding Quinnipiac’s reach in Ireland and also bringing Irish culture to Hamden with Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University. The Friendship Four tournament was a great success last year and we look forward to being part of its growth for the future,” he added.
Both the Belpot and the Florida Classic have reaped those results in markets where there had never been a college hockey team to begin with. Most naturally, same kind of sentiment should apply to the future of the Alaska Goal Rush, which started on the less precarious grounds of a program in place.
“We’re extremely excited to be hosting the Brice Alaska Goal Rush for the ninth straight season,” head coach Dallas Ferguson said in a press release on the Nanooks’ website. “We obviously owe a lot of the credit to the Brice family and Brice Incorporated for their continued support to give our hockey program the chance to host such a competitive tournament year after year.”
Much like Florida and Northern Ireland, Alaska offers an enticing, exotic location and the same kind of competitiveness that mirrors other tournaments. In fact, the Goal Rush tends to draw the Carlson Center’s largest crowds over the course of the season, due to the high amount of community support.
Last year’s tournament attracted 3,036 Nanook fans. Overall, the team drew a nightly average of 2,702 spectators to its 18 home games.
Besides the history of the Nanooks and Seawolves, Alaska has the advantage of attracting fans of the ECHL’s Aces and of junior teams in Fairbanks and Soldotna. In addition, there are nine teams in the Lower 48 with an Alaskan on their roster this season, most notably Nebraska-Omaha freshman goalie and Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick Kris Oldham.
If the worst-case scenario comes to pass for the Nanooks and Seawolves, an annual visit from a mix of locally raised talent and household-name powerhouses would be the next-best fix. The Goal Rush could also alter its format to boost its appeal.
Right now, the tournament pits the state’s two programs against the two outsiders, with cumulative game results determining the winner. If it switches to a traditional structure of two semifinal games, a third-place matchup and a championship tilt, it could increase the players’ competitive incentive, as it simulates a postseason weekend.
Whatever happens, the novelty of hosting an Alaskan hockey tournament would never seem to wane based on how much the community embraces the weekend’s festivities.
“Fairbanks is a hockey town and we’re extremely thankful for the community support we get each year during the Brice Tournament,” Ferguson said in the press release. “It’s a great introduction for our new players to see the type of wonderful people we have here in our community, and for us to get to host a Division I tournament here in little Fairbanks, Alaska is pretty special.”
Leave a Reply