NHL
Milwaukee Admirals announcer Aaron Sims had to call Friday's game with his cell phone throughout the second period after the power to his equipment went out. Courtesy of Aaron Sims
Failing generators, an electric parka, announcing on a cell phone, subzero temperatures — it was just another day at the office for hockey announcer Aaron Sims.
Sims was on hand for the coldest outdoor professional hockey game of all time on Friday, a 3-2 overtime victory by the Milwaukee Admirals over the Iowa Wild in Hastings, Minn. The American Hockey League game was at the United Heroes League Complex as part of the week-long Hockey Day Minnesota celebration, marking the 20th year of the event.
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It was the first time Hockey Day Minnesota held an outdoor pro hockey game, featuring the AHL, the NHL’s primary development league.
The temperature at puck drop was minus-8 degrees Fahrenheit, besting the previous record for the coldest outdoor pro hockey game of minus-5.7 degrees Fahrenheit. That record was set at the 2022 NHL Winter Classic between the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild at Target Field in Minneapolis.
Zachary L’Heureux scored 1:35 into overtime to lift Milwaukee to the overtime victory on Friday.
The game lasted 2 hours and 24 minutes. Sims broadcasted every minute of it outdoors, outfitted in an electric parka with heating elements powered by a lithium battery. Hand warmers cocooned his hands and feet.
It was the first outdoor game for Sims, who is now in his 21st year broadcasting for the Admirals. But freezing weather is nothing new for Sims, who grew up in Inver Grove Heights, just south of St. Paul in the Twin Cities. Before working for the Admirals, Sims worked in sports talk radio and announced Wisconsin women’s college basketball and high school sports. He’s been broadcasting for more than three decades.
With subfreezing temperatures gripping much of the U.S., there were discussions about possibly canceling Friday’s outdoor showdown, Sims said. The AHL left that decision up to the Admirals and Wild, and the teams decided they wanted to play. The announced attendance was 4,608 people (capacity is 5,500), but, as Sims told The Athletic, “certainly there were less people in the third period than there were at the beginning of the game.”
Event officials did the best they could to keep people comfortable, offering a warm food tent, free hand warmers and mittens for kids.
“They really took care of the people that came out there last night,” Sims said.
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Sims had no choice but to broadcast in the elements. The press box was full of TV and radio broadcasters, and the plastic tent set up for him and his radio station colleagues — while functional for housing equipment — was not ideal for Sims. From his spot inside the tent, he could not see one of the goals, and it was impossible to discern player numbers through the blurry plastic. Not only that, but none of the multiple heaters worked.
“I made the decision at the beginning of the game, if we’re gonna do this right, I gotta call it from outside,” said Sims, who calls games for Fox Sports 920 (WOKY) in Milwaukee. He was the only one broadcasting outside.
At one point, power went out because of a blown transformer, and two backup generators failed. The third generator held, but Sims had to broadcast the entire second period from his cell phone. Power was restored by the third period, though, allowing Sims to resume his normal operation.
Sims was able to grab some warmth during the first intermission, when he hung out with a couple of friends in the warming tent for about eight minutes. In the second intermission, he availed himself of a heater blower, sitting right in front of it to thaw himself out a bit.
The rest of the time, however, it was just Sims against the northern freeze.
OVERTIME IS BETTER OUTDOORS🥶@mkeadmirals | @HockeyDayMN |#HDM2026 pic.twitter.com/1kinonh3yt
— American Hockey League (@TheAHL) January 24, 2026
For many in the bitter cold, it’s not so easy to speak. Teeth start clattering, your mouth starts freezing and your tongue gets tied up. Not for Sims on Friday.
“What really helped for me is I didn’t need a roster. We know these teams. Obviously, I know my team. That was Game 37 for the Admirals, and we’ve seen Iowa many times over the years,” he said. “We know all of these players. So I could keep my hands in my pockets. I didn’t need a program.”
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Despite the sub-freezing conditions, Sims and everyone at the game — colleagues, fans, players — didn’t seem to regret being there, as far as Sims could tell.
“We all thought we were all crazy,” Sims joked. “There were so many of us on the team, and the players and coaches and fans that I talked to, we’re all glad we did this. Such a lovely experience. But next time, let’s make it 30 degrees warmer.”
On his other, warmer broadcasts, Sims sometimes will sing during Admirals broadcasts, when there are TV timeouts. “I’m not shy,” he says. He and some friends formed their band Chili Sabotage, but “we really don’t do anything.”
Sims said he would have no hesitation about doing another outdoor game, with hopefully warmer temps.
“We have played in the coldest game, and we handled it pretty well,” Sime told The Athletic. “Now we have that experience, so if we do it again, we’ll be that much wiser the next time around. I, 100 percent, would do it again. It was a really cool experience.”
Alex Valdes is a trending news reporter for The Athletic. Alex was previously a writer at CNET and MoneyTalksNews, a web content manager at Tipico, a sports editor at NBC Sports and MSNBC, and had various content roles at Microsoft.
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