Ice Vegas Invitational will return to Las Vegas
Before the first Ice Vegas Invitational had concluded, bd Global, the company putting on the tournament, announced plans for the event to return to Las Vegas.
The two-day college hockey tournament at T-Mobile Arena attracted schools from all over the country — Boston College, Northern Michigan, Michigan Tech and Arizona State — in the inaugural year.
The company has put on various college basketball tournaments and games around the valley, but president Brooks Downing said Thursday at a news conference that bd Global was “quick to realize that this is truly a hockey town,” and would bring back hockey along with basketball.
“This is planned to be an ongoing event,” Downing said. “As a matter of fact, I think we’ve got our field set … for the next two years, so we’ll be announcing those here in the very near future. We’re looking to make this a home to college hockey.”
Division I hockey coming to Las Vegas?
Arizona State coach Greg Powers knows better than most the difficulty of jumping from club hockey to Division I.
The Sun Devils made the transition to DI recently, and while Powers said it has been incredibly difficult from a competitive standpoint, it’s been a lot of fun.
So, could UNLV make a similar transition?
Powers thinks so. He said UNLV reminded him a lot of his team at that level, and while he doesn’t know how long it will take for the Rebels, he thinks it will happen.
“They have a tremendous group of guys running that program that I’m very close to, and they’re doing a great job,” Powers said. “If I were a betting man, I’d be on them to get it done. They have a lot of great things going here. The Vegas Golden Knights being so successful, this evolving into more of a hockey town, they can get that done.”
Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
