Assiniboine Park plans Game 5 Jets viewing party

Assiniboine Park is gearing up to take part in Jets mania, with an outdoor family friendly viewing party slated for — fingers crossed — Game 5 in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“There’s just nothing quite like the buzz that happens in Winnipeg and Manitoba when the Jets are in the playoffs, and that’s really what it’s all about — the community gets behind this team,” said Assiniboine Park Conservancy spokeswoman Laura Cabak.

“Just like everyone else, we got excited about the potential in this playoff run, you know, we’re behind the team, and when it looked like they were going to make it through to Round 2, we were like, ‘OK, let’s do it.’”

Cabak said the conservancy will show the Sportsnet game feed live on the screen at the Lyric Theatre at the park, if the team — which lost the first game of the best-of-seven series to the Dallas Stars Wednesday night — wins at least one of the next three contests, including Game 2 Friday night at Canada Life Centre. The third and fourth games will be played in Dallas on Sunday and Tuesday.

The date and time of the Game 5 viewing party — and Cabak said park conservancy officials are confident it’s when, not if, the team will make it — hasn’t been announced, but gates will open an hour before puck drop.

“We are very confident — we’re not superstitious — the Jets showed us at the end of Round 1 that they have what it takes, you cannot count them out,” said Cabak. “We are fully confident in the home team, that there will be a Game 5.”

The event will be ticketed and the area surrounding the stage will be fenced off, said Cabak, adding it’s not yet clear how many people might attend, as it depends on the game time and weather.

Admission will be capped at 2,500.

“There’s a lot of variables,” she said.

This year’s playoffs are the first time the conservancy has planned a Jets event, but Cabak noted it will be handled similarly to past outdoor events, such as concerts in the park.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca