Mayor says Hockeyville NHL game won't be played in Elliot Lake, but still 'a home game, no matter where it is'

Construction crews are working six days a week inside Elliot Lake's shuttered Centennial Arena to get it ready for skaters to hit the ice this fall.

But the mayor of the small northern Ontario city that was crowned Hockeyville in a national contest earlier this year says it won't be hosting the National Hockey League game that comes with the title.

That exhibition tilt between the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins is scheduled for Sept. 29 and is likely to be held in Sudbury or Sault Ste. Marie.

"I mean I don't think everything's going to be ready.I don't think the stands will be perfect, right. And if you're having such a big event you want to pack the place," said Elliot Lake Mayor Andrew Wannan.

"I don't think we'll have that capacity. No matter what. Even if it's a miracle and we could open it up tomorrow and make ice."

It's been nearly a year since the Centennial Arena was suddenly shut down out of fears it could become the latest public building in the city of 11,000 people to collapse, following the Algo Centre Mall in 2012and the Pearson civic centre in 2019.

That forced figure skaters, minor hockey teams and the Elliot Lake Vikings junior hockey team to travel out of town last winter to find ice time in neighbouring communities such as Massey and Blind River.

The city has been working to shore up the wooden structure of the 56-year-old rink with the goal of re-opening the arena in September.

That's been helped by the $250,000 in Hockeyville prize money, plus more than half a million in donations that have come in since then.

But Wannan says even if Centennial Arena was ready, Elliot Lake doesn't meet some of the NHL's requirements to host an exhibition game, including a hospital with specific medical equipment.

So the game is likely to be held in either Sudbury or Sault Ste. Marie, each about a two-hour drive away from the former uranium mining capital turned retirement destination.

"It's going to be like an Elliot Lake home game, no matter where it is," he said.

"In my dreaming world, all the kids who missed out on hockey, they would get the tickets for them and their families."