When the Wild’s home in St. Paul officially went from Xcel Energy Center to Grand Casino Arena back in September, owner Craig Leipold spoke about how excited he was for this new partnership.
Melissa “Baabiitaw” Boyd knew how that bond could be reflected beyond the name on the outside of the building and at center ice.
“I couldn’t help myself,” said Boyd, who is on the board for the Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network and a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. “At the same time as [Leipold] was talking, I put my hand straight in the air.”
She suggested Ojibwe-language commentary for the games, and that idea came to life Friday with the first-of-its-kind broadcast during the host Wild’s 3-2 shootout victory over the Colorado Avalanche.
“We’re thrilled,” Boyd said.
In celebration of Native American Heritage Day, which former goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury previously commemorated with a custom mask, the Wild broadcast was streamed on the FanDuel Sports Network website and app and produced by the network in conjunction with Grand Casino, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and the Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network.
A Minnesota-based nonprofit, Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network works to strengthen and expand Anishinaabe language revitalization by bringing organizations together to advocate and advance language preservation, re-normalization and daily use.
Its focus is to create long-term, systemic change and learning across generations, and three generations were featured on the broadcast that had plenty to highlight in the Wild’s seventh consecutive victory: Kirill Kaprizov scored twice to eclipse 200 goals, Matt Boldy delivered his eighth career shootout winner and the Wild defeated the first-place Avalanche to end their Central Division rival’s 10-game win streak.
