2025-26 Season Highlights

• Season Hockey Highlights
• Charitable Gambling & Fundraising
• Growing the Game
• Provide Your Feedback // Member Survey
• Apply to Join the SPCHA Board
• Summer Hockey Development

The season was full of development, scrimmages, games, and in- and out-of-town tournaments and jamborees. We skated at the Tommie Ice Plex for the first time. And off the ice, our teams participated in some great teambuilding events.

The Capitals hosted 64 teams across the Capital Cup, Cormick Cup, and Capital City Mite Classic Jamboree.

The Comick Cup expanded to all Squirt levels this season with a lot of success. And the Capital Cup and Capital City Mite Classic remained player and fan favorites.

Thanks to our amazing tournament directors and the volunteers that make these tournaments successful. And continued thanks to the Scanlan family for their generous support of the Cormick Cup in honor of Cormick's legacy and passion for hockey.



Closing out the season, we had nice tournament runs with our travel teams at the District 2 and District 8 tournaments. Extra stick taps go out to these notable results:

• D2 Champions:
• Peewee A
• Peewee B1
• D2 Runners Up:
• 15U A
• Bantam A
• 10U A
• D8 Runner Up:
• 12U B2
• D2 Third Place:
• 10U B1

The SPCHA also hosted D2’s Peewee C Year-End Tournament again. Hosting a D2 tournament is a great opportunity to provide our families the opportunity to fulfill our association obligation to provide volunteers to D2 tournaments without having to travel to Stillwater, Forest Lake, or other D2 tournament locations. It doesn't hurt that it is also good for concession sales, right? 🍿

And we were also excited to have four teams qualify for Region Tournaments:

• 15U A played in the American Bracket in Woodbury
• Bantam A played in the East Bracket in Stillwater
• Peewee A played in the East Bracket in Prior Lake
• Peewee B1 played in the East Bracket in Shakopee

Congratulations!

We are very excited to to start charitable gambling operations with two new partner locations in the next couple months. More on that soon. For now, if you're looking for pull tabs, e-tabs, or BINGO, please visit our current charitable gambling partners:

We also enhanced our fundraising efforts by increasing our focus on dasher board sponsorships, which has attracted additional sponsorship dollars and brought in-arena visibility to our community partners. Additionally, our in-season member fundraiser raffle netted over $44,000. Our players also enjoyed winning some great Top Seller prizes. Thank you for your support!

The funds we raise through these efforts help offset the rising costs of providing youth hockey programs to our community. This season the association:

• paid for three tournaments per travel team, directly reducing the amount families were asked to contribute to team slush funds

• funded free hockey for first-time Mini Mite, Mite, and 8U players as on of eleven inaugural Skate It Forward associations

• offered scholarships to all applicants

• launched three billboards across Highland, West End, and West Side neighborhoods to raise our profile and welcome new players

• reimbursed team staff for USA Hockey-required training and background checks

• held registration fees despite significantly increasing our biggest and most impactful expense: ice rental

While we continue to work to make hockey affordable in our community, all of this (and more) sets us up to survive and thrive. Thank you again for your support!

We continue working on recruiting and retaining players. Our efforts this season included two Try Hockey for Free events, two Try Goalie events, booths at Cinco de Mayo and Mac-Grove Fest, our yard signs, and a $25,000 assist from the Minnesota Wild Foundation's Skate It Forward initiative that helped make hockey free for first-time Mini Mite, Mite, and 8U players.

Through the Skate It Forward program, we increased our registrations 33% year over year at those levels. In addition, we supported the unique community hockey model offered exclusively in Minnesota by raising over $6,000 as part of the Skate It Forward on Hockey Day Minnesota fundraising drive. Hats off to the Squirt B1 team for driving a large majority of those contributions. Way to pay it forward!

Of course, we continued our community partnerships with our local high school and college hockey programs, the PWHL, Minnesota Wild Foundation, Friends of St. Paul Hockey, and Midway Men's Club, as well as our vibrant local business and charitable gambling partners.

Let's keep working together to promote and grow the greatest game on earth right here in the capital of the State of Hockey!

We want to hear your constructive thoughts on what's working well with the association and its programs and what we can improve. Our goal is to make SPCHA the best it can be for our community.

As a reminder, the SPCHA is a community built around a common respect for the game of hockey. We strive to consistently develop players and coaches to their full potential in a fun and safe hockey environment. SPCHA members embrace competitive play, teamwork, and sportsmanship.

Please provide a response for each player you had in the SPCHA this season by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31.

Are you interested in joining the SPCHA board? Board members play an important role driving the vision and initiatives that support our players, families, and community.

There are four seats up for election in April. Directors serve three-year terms, during which they attend monthly board meetings that typically take place the fourth Tuesday of each month. The newly elected board members' terms will begin in May 2025. And the specific roles of all directors will be determined at the May board meeting.

Board positions are purely voluntary. Board service covers your volunteer Dibs requirement during your tenure on the board.

The SPCHA encourages all interested members to run for the board. 

Please complete your application by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31. Your answers will be distributed to all parents and guardians as part of the board ballot.

Together, we can continue to build a thriving, inclusive, and successful hockey program for all.

Registration is open for our renewed Capitals Summer Camps directed by Tom Vannelli and Taylor Chorney, and led by Ray Christy and goalie coach, David Zevnik.

Registration is also open for our new Saints Summer Camps with Nolan & Avery Sawchuk (10U & 12U skaters), Dan Esrig (8U & 10U skaters), and Josie Bothun (all goalies).

If you've read this far, you're truly a champ with a lot of endurance. That means you're awesome and probably a great candidate for the board. In case you missed it, we just so happen to be collecting bios from board candidates right now – and will do so through 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31st. If you’re interested in running for a board seat, please submit your bio here.

Board election ballots will be sent in April.

Have a great off-season, everyone. We can't wait to see you back at the rink soon.