Blues and Penguins to play in Kraft Hockeyville Game

The Kraft Hockeyville competition pits three towns against each other for the title, with a victory garnering the town $150,000 in upgrades to their local rink. This year, the winning town is Belle Vernon, PA, and their Rostraver Ice Garden will be getting some updates as well as a pre-season game between the Pittsburgh Penguins at the St. Louis Blues. From the press release:

The Rostraver Ice Garden, which first opened in 1965 and hosted the Penguins training camp in the 1970s, had its roof collapse nearly seven years ago because of heavy snow. The collapse caused damage to nearly one-third of the structure and the rink has been in need of renovations ever since. After being awarded Kraft Hockeyville™ USA 2017, The Rostraver Ice Garden plans to use the prize money for a number of projects including purchasing a compressor, floor matting in the lobby, pipes and LED lighting.

As an added bonus, the game will be televised live on NBCSN, so we can actually see one of the Blues’ pre-season games on TV.

This is the second Pennsylvania town to win; Johnstown won in 2015 and were treated to a game between the Penguins and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Here’s hoping that this won’t be the last Hockeyville game that the Blues play in. There are plenty of metro St. Louis towns who are more than qualified to host the game.