COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Hockey announced that the Chicago Blackhawks will host the ninth annual USA Hockey Sled Classic, presented by the NHL. The four-day event will take place Feb. 7-10, 2019, at MB Ice Arena, the practice facility and community rink of the Blackhawks.
First staged in 2010, the USA Hockey Sled Classic is an annual round-robin format tournament between sled hockey teams associated with certain NHL clubs. Participating teams in the tournament must have an official affiliation with an NHL member club and must represent their affiliated NHL club by wearing official NHL licensed jerseys with local club marks and logos.
Last year, the event featured a record 28 teams that competed in five divisions. The Chicago Blackhawks program claimed both the Tier I and Tier V divisions while the Pittsburgh Penguins were crowned Tier II champions, the Edmonton Oilers won the Tier III division and the Colorado Avalanche claimed the Tier IV division.
Full details surrounding the tournament will be released at a later date.
NOTES: The Colorado Avalanche hosted the inaugural USA Hockey Sled Classic in 2010 in Denver, Colorado, where the Colorado Avalanche won the four-team event … Previous NHL hosts include the Philadelphia Flyers (2011); Buffalo Sabres (2012); Pittsburgh Penguins (2013); Washington Capitals (2014); Florida Panthers (2015); Nashville Predators (2016) and Minnesota Wild (2017) … For more details on the tournament, click here … Since 2012-13, the number of players and coaches part of USA Hockey’s disabled program has grown by 70%, including a 114% increase in sled hockey … Chicago was the host city for the gold medal-winning 2018 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team residency program and also the 2018 Toyota-USA Hockey Disabled Festival, which included a record 1,600-plus players ..
