International hockey arrives in Mankato

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Junior Hockey Championship, which gathers teams from all over the world to compete.

The big championship will be hosted in the Twin Cities, but the Pre-Tournament Series is hosted around the state in places like Rochester, Duluth and Bemidji, and it all kicks off in Mankato.

Teams from Denmark, Switzerland and Canada converge on the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center, putting the arena and Mankato in the international spotlight.

“Having an international level competition here in Mankato for us is huge. We don’t do a lot of international level events here in Mankato, so that was really big for us to be a part of it, be a part of something bigger with hockey in the state of Minnesota and hockey internationally,” said Brian Sather with the event center.

Visit Mankato is serving a hosting role during the visit, and says that they’re hoping to show off everything the area has to offer to our international visitors, from Kiwanis Holiday lights to Minneopa State Park.

“Minnesota is the state of hockey but there is some tough competition for hosting a major world-class tournament like this, so there was a lot of excitement, obviously a lot of behind-the-scenes work goes in to hosting an event like this,” said Visit Mankato’s Ashlee White.

The Mavericks start the action Tuesday night against Team Switzerland at 7 p.m.

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