ST. CLOUD - On this hot day in July we're talking hockey. We're just six months away from the 12th annual Hockey Day Minnesota event, which for the first time ever is coming to St. Cloud.

The Minnesota Wild and Fox Sports North control much of the schedule and planning for the hockey games themselves, while local planners are in charge of all the events that surround the games. Brian Schoenborn says the Wild and FSN are excited about what they've come up with so far.

The early returns from both FSN and the Wild have been "wow".  I mean coming to Summertime By George, they've never seen anything like that.

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Schoenborn says they're planning a weekend full of activities, including a live band at Lake George that Saturday night.

City Planner Matt Glaesman is another one of the organizers of the event. He says it's a unique opportunity to shine a bright spotlight on St. Cloud.

We just don't get that opportunity very often to be on television for 12 to 18 hours straight here in St. Cloud.  The neat piece this time around is they are not going back to the Xcel Energy Center in between periods of the Wild game, they're going to stay here.

Leaders have been working on bringing Hockey Day Minnesota to St. Cloud for the past five years.

Glaesman says he's hoping this will be the start of creating an annual winter festival in the city.

The 12th Annual Hockey Day Minnesota is Saturday, January 20th at Lake George.

Hockey Day Minnesota Schedule:
10:00 a.m. - St. Cloud Cathedral vs. St. Cloud Coop boys hockey game
1:00 p.m. - SCSU vs. University of Minnesota-Duluth women's hockey game
4:30 p.m. - Centennial vs. Moorhead boys hockey game
5:00 p.m. - SCSU vs. Minnesota State-Mankato men's hockey game
8:00 p.m. - Wild vs. Tampa Bay NHL game

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