MARSHALL – If you’re looking for an exciting sporting event to attend around the Marshall area, the Red Baron Arena is the place to be this weekend.

The facility will play host to the inaugural “Marshall Madness on Ice” event complete with a five-team adult hockey tournament that begins today and runs through Saturday, as well as an eight-team curling tournament known as a bonspiel that will run all day Saturday.

The hockey tournament is the first of its kind in the area and will bring together two local Marshall teams complete with MHS alumni, as well as teams from Willmar, Duluth and Blaine. The action begins at 6:30 p.m. on the Reinhart Rink for the first of three scheduled round-robin games. The final two games of the night will take place at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

The busiest day of the tournament is Saturday with a total of seven games scheduled. The winner of the tournament will be determined at the conclusion of the final game at 7:30 p.m. when point totals from the round-robin are finalized.

With youth tournaments no longer an issue in regard to rink-access, recreation coordinator at Marshall Community Services Cam Bailey said the timing worked out nicely for the event.

“We’re excited. We’ve never hosted this before. It’s something new hosting it at the Red Baron Arena so it’ll bring in some adult hockey guys, and the timing’s great because a lot of the youth tournaments and things are done so we have access to some ice on a weekend,” said Bailey. “So, we’re pretty pumped to get some adult hockey in.”

The curling tournament, or bonspiel, begins on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. on the Lockwood Rink and runs through 6:30 p.m. for the championship match. The tournament is comprised of eight teams which includes six local clubs, in addition to one from Sioux Falls and another from Duluth. The eight teams will combine to play 14 matches in total over the course of the day.

The committee in charge of the event is fully aware of the current situation in regards to the coronavirus and has taken extra precautions to make sure the event runs smoothly and will go on as scheduled.

“We’re doing our due diligence on cleaning things and we’ll have everything ready to go so at this point we’re not canceling it by any means,” said Bailey. “We’re going to go ahead with it. Everyone has to use their discretion on if they’re not feeling good or things like that to stay home, but it should be a full night of hockey Friday and a full day Saturday of (hockey and curling).”