Girls hockey needs more teams. It's been stuck at 11 teams for 7 years now. Bismarck adds another and you are at 12 and could have a east and west region. It's about growing the sport not the trophy case.
Bismarck is not a big hockey town. If it was they would of had another sheet of ice or 2 years ago because they have needed it. Sounds like they are finally getting one added to the Shaumberg Arena. Still baffles me how a town with 5 high schools only has 1 girls team and 2 boys teams.
My team loved to play on the big ice. Now the last 2 years I coached Jamestown we had 11 skaters on the team. You would think the bigger ice would be a negative for our team because of our short bench. For some reason it was the opposite. Team got stronger as the games went on and managed a 5th and 4th place finish my last 2 years. The atmosphere in there is pretty amazing when it's full as it gets loud and the team fed off that.
I didn't care about girls HS hockey either until I coached it for 6 years. Now that I'm done I have an appreciation for the work they put into it. With that said I'd much rather watch the boys.
Minot is in the process of building a new arena attached to their MAYSA rinks that will seat 2500 fans. I'm sure they will be looking to get it down the road.