File photo by Travis Rosenau The New Ulm boys hockey team gathers around the net before a Big South Conference game against Luverne on Dec. 19, 2025

NEW ULM — The seventh annual Hockey Day New Ulm is set to start Friday, Jan. 9 and continue Saturday, Jan. 10 at the New Ulm Civic Center.

And it is also very special Hockey Day as it is the 50th Anniversary of boys high school hockey in New Ulm.

“We will begin it on Friday, January 9th with an Alumni game,” said Justin Remus of the New Ulm Hockey Association. “We will have four alumni games that will have two, one-hour games. We will have the B&L Bar hosting a bar for those of age — we will have a Happy Hour — and we will have that until both games are completed.”

Remus said that there will also be some history video and prints of the 50 years of boys high school hockey at NUHS.

“We have some pretty good classes coming back — the Class of 1983 is our largest — we have 19 skaters coming back from that group. We also have a bunch coming back from the mid 90s and a bunch from the early-to-mid 2000s.”

On Saturday, games will start bright and early at 8 a.m., at both rinks.

And for those who love watching hockey, this will be a Thanksgiving.

“We will run games from 8 a.m. and run non-stop games until 8:30 p.m. when our last game starts,” Remus said. “That will be our Bantam As playing. We start the day with our Level Four 8-and-under group. We go through the age group with the younger skaters and proceed through the 10-U, Squirts, PeeWees, and then into the high school program.

“We have both JV for our boys and girls playing that day, The girls JV starts at noon followed by the varsity at 2 p.m., with the boys JV starting at 5 pm. followed by the varsity.”

The boys play Redwood Valley with the girls meeting Albert Lea.

Remus said that the morning games will see a mix of out of town teams playing New Ulm.

“The majority of our squirt teams will be playing Mankato,” he said.

Remus said that this seventh annual Hockey Day New Ulm is a good day for the hockey families and the community to come together.

Remus said that there will be great concessions for the fans

“We will have landjaeger and sauerkraut available and we will have our normal concessions,” he said “We will start the day with Breakfast Pizza and then fire up the crockpots and get the sauerkraut going.”

He said that at 10 a.m. the face-painter will be there for the kids.

“That goes from 10 until 3,” Remus said. “We will also have the clothing store for Eagles hockey apparel and that will open up Friday night for the Alumni game and stay open on Saturday until the end of the games.”

Remus said that there will also be raffles.

“And our we will be doing something with our Wild experience — we also have Silent Auction items from area businesses and from our teams as well,” he said. “That is a big fundraiser to help offset some of the end-of-the-year tournament fees.”

He said there will also be local vendors in attendance that day.

“We will have a coffee vendor and the nutritional malts from Crush 80/20,” he said.

The highlight of the day will be the presentation of the Tom Macho Award, which will be presented between the first and second periods of the boys varsity game between New Ulm and Redwood Valley.

There will also be an outdoor kids rink along with games and contests and autographs from the current players.