2020 NHL Stadium Series

2020 NHL Stadium Series

1 2 3 Total Los Angeles Kings 1 0 2 3 Colorado Avalanche 0 1 0 1
Date	February 15, 2020
Venue	Falcon Stadium
City	Colorado Springs, Colorado
Attendance	43,574
← 2019 2022 →

The 2020 NHL Stadium Series was an outdoor regular season National Hockey League (NHL) game, part of the Stadium Series of games that took place on February 15, 2020. The game featured the Los Angeles Kings and the Colorado Avalanche at Falcon Stadium, located on the campus of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.^[1][2] The Kings defeated the Avalanche by a score of 3–1. This was the only game in the Stadium Series that was scheduled for the 2019–20 season.

The United States Air Force Academy's a cappella group and America's Got Talent Season 12 semi-finalist In The Stairwell performed the anthem prior to puck drop while country music artist Sam Hunt performed during the first intermission.

Background

This was the second time the Avalanche have hosted the Stadium Series, as they last hosted the event in 2016 at Coors Field, as well as the second time a military academy has hosted the Stadium Series, after Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium hosted the 2018 event.^[3] Also, this was the Kings' third NHL outdoor regular season game, following the 2014 and 2015 Stadium Series. This marks their second as the visiting team.^[1]

Traffic issues

Due to traffic issues getting into Falcon Stadium during that day, a number of fans ended up missing large portions of the game. Both the league and the Air Force Academy had sent out traffic advisories throughout the week beforehand. But several accidents, and lane closures on Interstate 25 for emergency pothole repairs combined with delays getting through security at the academy's two main gates turned what is normally about a 45-minute drive from Denver to over four hours. A fatal accident then occurred after the game at the north gate, causing all vehicles to be rerouted through the south gate. The academy later issued a statement saying that it did all it could to ease the congestion, but "despite our best efforts, all of these, added to the already challenging traffic conditions along the I-25 corridor, combined and unfortunately impacted some fans travelling to the game".^[4][5][6] In addition, fans complained about long waits and shortages of food and apparel at the Academy as well.

Game summary

The Los Angeles Kings defeated the Colorado Avalanche 3–1, with Kings forward Tyler Toffoli recording the first hat trick in an NHL outdoor game. Toffoli opened up the scoring at 14:01 of the first period. Colorado defenseman Sam Girard tied the game less than a minute left in the second period. Toffoli then scored the game-winning goal with 55 seconds left and then added an empty-net goal with five seconds remaining. Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick made 32 saves in the win. Colorado goalie Philipp Grubauer made 14 saves before leaving the game with an injury in the third period, while backup goalie Pavel Francouz made six saves.^[7][8]

Number in parentheses represents the player's total in goals or assists to that point of the season

Team rosters

Los Angeles Kings # Player Position 3 Matt Roy D 6 Joakim Ryan D 8 Drew Doughty (A) D 9 Adrian Kempe LW 10 Michael Amadio C 11 Anze Kopitar (C) C 12 Trevor Moore C 19 Alex Iafallo LW 22 Trevor Lewis C 23 Dustin Brown LW 26 Sean Walker D 27 Alec Martinez D 29 Martin Frk RW 32 Jonathan Quick G 40 Cal Petersen[1] G 46 Blake Lizotte C 51 Austin Wagner LW 56 Kurtis MacDermid D 73 Tyler Toffoli C 77 Jeff Carter (A) C Head coach: Todd McLellan

Colorado Avalanche # Player Position 6 Erik Johnson (A) D 8 Cale Makar D 11 Matt Calvert LW 13 Valeri Nichushkin RW 16 Nikita Zadorov D 17 Tyson Jost C 27 Ryan Graves D 28 Ian Cole D 29 Nathan MacKinnon (A) C 31 Philipp Grubauer G 37 J. T. Compher LW 39 Pavel Francouz G 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare LW 49 Sam Girard D 72 Joonas Donskoi RW 81 Vladislav Kamenev C 83 Matt Nieto LW 92 Gabriel Landeskog (C) LW 95 Andre Burakovsky LW 96 Mikko Rantanen RW Head coach: Jared Bednar

^ Cal Petersen dressed as the back-up goaltender for Los Angeles and did not enter the game.

Scratches

• Los Angeles Kings: Derek Forbort, Ben Hutton, Nikolai Prokhorkin
• Colorado Avalanche: Mark Barberio, T. J. Tynan

Broadcasting

In the United States, the game aired on NBC, with SN360 simulcasting NBC's feed in Canada. Due to there being no Stadium Series game the following year, this wound up being the last Stadium Series game broadcast on NBC after they lost the NHL's media rights to ABC/ABC and TNT Sports before the 2021-22 season. The Stadium Series rights initially went to TNT in 2022, but were then acquired by ABC in 2023.

References