BSN Exclusive: Outdoor NHL hockey coming back to Colorado

To date, there has been one outdoor NHL game in Colorado. That happened in 2016 at Coors Field, in a wildly successful event that featured games between the Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings teams, past and present.

Another outdoor game is coming to Colorado, but it won’t be in Denver. It’ll be in Colorado Springs, at the Air Force Academy’s Falcon Stadium, BSN Denver can confirm.

“Our hope is to work with the Service Academies on a series of outdoor games over the next several years,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told BSN Denver.

While a date has yet to be set, the NHL has committed to hosting a Coors Light Stadium Series game at Air Force in the near future. The game would be a continuation of some recent Stadium Series games that honor military institutions, including this Saturday’s Coors Light Stadium Series game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md.

Typically, NHL outdoor games try to feature a college game or two on the side, so it’s possible the University of Denver could face either Colorado College or Air Force, or Air Force could face another Service Academy team, though that has not been determined, nor has the opponent the Avalanche would face.

The 2016 Coors Light Stadium Series game between the Avalanche and Red Wings was won by Detroit, but the Avalanche’s alumni team defeated Detroit’s, in a game that featured all the big stars from the glory-days era of the late mid-1990s through the early 2000s.