El Paso's hockey scene was booming long before it won Hockeyville status, which is why it won Hockeyville status.
Kraft's online contest that netted Sunday's exhibition game between the Dallas Stars and Phoenix Coyotes, as well as $150,000 in renovations to the El Paso County Events Center, bestowed on El Paso a title that was built over the previous 20 years of the El Paso Hockey Association's existence.
This is a milestone for El Paso, for its NAHL hockey team the Rhinos and for all of the EPHA.
"This is a huge event," said Cory Herman, the founder and director of the EPHA and the coach of the Rhinos.