If you like stripes on your hockey jerseys, then has the American Hockey League ever got a game for you!
The AHL Outdoor Classic takes place on Friday, January 23, with the Milwaukee Admirals facing the Iowa Wild at the United Heroes League complex in Hastings, Minnesota, as part of Hockey Day in Minnesota festivities. Iowa is affiliated with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, while the Admirals are the farm team for the Nashville Predators.
Both teams unveiled their jerseys for the outdoor game earlier this month, and between the two of them, there are plenty of stripes for hockey fans to feast their eyes on.
Let’s start with Iowa, the designated home team for the Outdoor Classic game. The Wild will wear predominantly white jerseys with a white script “Iowa” wordmark on the front that has a dark green outline and dark green detailing inside. Each sleeve has seven narrow green stripes starting above the elbow and running down to the cuff, and four more green stripes run around the waist.
The squared-off shoulder yoke is dark green, with a monochrome white version of the Minnesota Wild’s primary logo on each shoulder. The collar is white, with white laces at the front. The numbers on the back and sleeves are one-colour dark green, while the names on the back are white on a contrasting dark green nameplate.
Iowa will wear these Outdoor Classic jerseys again on Friday, January 30, when they host the Admirals at Casey’s Center in Des Moines.
Over on the Admirals’ side, the stripes continue on the chest and sleeves of their navy blue jerseys. A broad vintage white band goes all the way around the chest and back, interrupted on the front by a shield with the letter “A” inside. The shape of the shield mimics that found on the Wisconsin flag, and the letter inside is a nod to the state’s system of designating county trunk highways by letters rather than numbers. The rest of “MILWAUKEE” is spelled out on either side of the shield inside the band.
Vintage white stripes run down the length of each arm, with a broader stripe just above the elbow containing the player’s number in solid navy blue. A broad vintage white panel runs around the waist, and the collar and laces are also vintage white. On the back, a white number with navy blue outlines sits on top of the horizontal band, and player names are solid vintage white.
This will be the 13th Outdoor Classic in AHL history. The most recent one before this was in January 2024, when the Charlotte Checkers defeated the Rochester Americans 5-2 at Truist Field in Charlotte, home to the Charlotte Knights, who play in the International League and are the triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.
United Heroes League is a non-profit organization based in Hastings, Minnesota, that “assists families of all branches of the military by providing free sports equipment, free youth camps, financial grants to help pay youth sports fees, special experiences, and pro sports tickets so the entire family can enjoy a night out at a game before or after deployment.”
Puck drop between the Wild and the Admirals is at 5:00 p.m. CT on Friday; the game will be streamed live on FloHockey. It’s the first of four meetings between the two teams before the end of January.
