Wild announces festivities for home opener on Saturday, Oct. 12

ST. PAUL --The National Hockey League's (NHL) Minnesota Wild today announced a variety of activities to celebrate its 2019-20 regular season home opener on Saturday, Oct. 12 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, presented by Xcel Energy, at 7:30 p.m. CT at Xcel Energy Center on FOX Sports North and KOOL 108 FM.

The Wild will host its Opening Night Pregame Party, presented by Just BARE Chicken, from 3-6:30 p.m. in Rice Park located in downtown Saint Paul. The party will include a DJ, Happy Hour pricing on food and beverages, and autograph signings from State of Hockey Alumni Jack Carlson, Chris Dahlquist, Brad Maxwell, Steve Payne, Barry Gibbs and Ted Harris. Wild media partners FOX Sports North and KFAN 100.3 FM will also be on site. The party is free and open to the public. Tickets to the Wild game are not required to attend. In the event of inclement weather, fans should stay tuned to wild.com and Wild social media accounts, including

on Twitter, for updates on the event.
Media are welcome to cover the pre-game party, as well as a special march from Rice Park to Xcel Energy Center Gate 1 where Wild fans will rally together to march the State of Hockey flag to the arena and plant the flag at the home of "Our Ice," beginning at 6:30 p.m. Please contact Emily Yang in the Wild Media Relations department to coordinate coverage.

Wild Happy Hour

New for the 2019-20 season, the Wild will host an hour long Happy Hour beginning two hours before puck drop at Michelob Golden Light Fan Zone located inside Gate 4 and North Bar located on the RBC Wealth Management Club Level. Happy hour beverage specials feature $5 16 oz. pints of domestic drafts, $5 wine by Chankaska, $5 rail cocktails and $2 fountain sodas. Happy hour food specials will be available only at Michelob Golden Light Fan Zone. Happy Hour on Saturday, Oct. 12 is from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Also new for the season, the Wild will host pregame acoustic performances, presented by Jack Daniel's, at select home games. A pregame acoustic performance will be held on Saturday, Oct. 12 from 5:15-6:50 p.m. at Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Club featuring music by Jud Hailey. All fans who have a ticket to Saturday's game can attend this concert. Additional pregame acoustic performance dates will be announced at a later time. Tickets to the Wild game are required to attend both the happy hour and pregame acoustic performance events.

Our State. Our Team. Our Ice.

The Wild's Xcel Energy Center ice sheet for the 2019-20 season features water donated by fans from their "home ice," from backyard rinks to frozen neighborhood ponds to community arenas. Fans can continue to bring up to three ounces of water to every Wild home game during the season. Water will be collected on the skyway level of Gate 1 until the start of each Wild home game, before being filtered and added to the Xcel Energy Center ice by a Zamboni between periods of each game night.
This season, fans are encouraged to submit before-and-after photos of themselves building their rinks. For more information about the This Is Our Ice tradition, visit
wild.com/ourice
.

Get There Early

The Wild encourages all fans attending Saturday's game to get to Xcel Energy Center early and be in their seats by 7:20 p.m. The game will feature an extended pregame including opening video, multimedia effects and full-team introductions of the Wild roster before Minnesota and Pittsburgh take the ice.

Let's Play Hockey

Mike Modano will lead the arena in the traditional "Let's Play Hockey!" call before the puck is dropped. The former first overall pick in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft by the North Stars ranks first in NHL history in goals scored and points by an American-born player. Modano was named an Executive Advisor by the Wild on May 23, 2019.

National Anthem

The Wild will welcome the Minnesota National Guard 34th Red Bull Infantry Division at Saturday's home opener. Thirty members of the unit will present a large United States flag on the ice during the National Anthem, performed by John deCausemaker, and a General Officer will serve as the Guardian of the Game. The soldiers recently returned home from a ten-month deployment in the Middle East in July. The unit was responsible for leading U.S. Central Command's Task Force Spartan, increasing military readiness and capability, in order to maintain regional stability and partnerships.

Gameday Ticket

The Wild are implementing mobile entry to all home games at Xcel Energy Center this season. To view your Wild tickets through the entirely digital ticketing experience, download the free
NHL App
from the App Store (iPhone) or Google Play (Android), and select the Minnesota Wild as your favorite team.
Fans are encouraged to join the GameDay Tickets text notification list at
wild.com/gamedaytix
- designed to help fans get last-minute tickets to Wild home games that have limited availability. GameDay Tickets subscribers will receive an SMS text message when seats for Wild home games are released, including on game days when pairs of tickets (or more), or single seats become available.

Gameday Parking

This season, the Minnesota Wild has partnered with ParkWhiz, an
Arrive
brand, to make it easier for fans to get to the arena. Wild fans can now find, book and pay for parking in advance of home games, helping them get to the arena quicker while alleviating traffic and congestion. Fans can purchase game day parking through the free Wild app or wild.com. Fans can also opt to buy parking via Ticketmaster when they purchase tickets to a home game.