DENVER (Friday, January 9, 2026) – The Colorado Avalanche, in collaboration with the National Hockey League and Sony’s Beyond Sports, today announced plans to air a real-time, animated program for the Avs’ game versus the Minnesota Wild on February 26 at 7 p.m. MT on My20 (KTVD-TV) and Altitude 2. “Bernie’s Mountain Showdown,” organized by Avalanche mascot Bernie the St. Bernard, will depict Bernie and several of his four-legged friends of all shapes, sizes, and specialties, putting on a charity pond hockey game to support the service dogs of Colorado.
“Bernie’s Mountain Showdown,” the latest animated program in the NHL HOCKEYVERSE, is geared toward families and young fans and will be carried locally on My20 (KTVD-TV) and Altitude 2, as well as streaming on Altitude+. The program will air alongside the traditional broadcast of the game on 9NEWS (KUSA-TV) and Altitude Sports.
The program will feature real-time, volumetric animation and player avatars that will reflect everything that is happening in the actual Avs-Wild contest. The game environment will be inspired by the iconic Colorado landscape, with the pond surrounded by the natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains, as well as the rivers, wildlife, and even popular Denver landmarks that make the Centennial State a premiere destination.
Powered by Sony’s Beyond Sports’ data visualization technology, real-time data from NHL EDGE Positional Data (NHL Puck and Player tracking data) merges with Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations' optical tracking data and is animated to bring all the on-ice action to life in real time. Through this cutting-edge technology, fans of all ages can enjoy animated shots, checks, passes and saves from some of the NHL’s most popular stars, including Avs leaders Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Gabriel Landeskog, and Brent Burns, plus Wild forwards Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy.
The matchup between the Avs and Wild is one of several NHL HOCKEYVERSE animated data visualizations that will be produced this season alongside Sony’s Beyond Sports, as a continuation of the NHL’s global efforts to feature innovative applications of NHL technology, such as NHL EDGE Positional Data (Puck and Player tracking), and deliver the game of hockey to fans of all ages in fun and engaging ways.
