Most of the games are played at a featured outdoor location with a rink built specifically for the event.
The games, normally played outdoors, had to be moved indoors due to warm weather causing poor ice conditions.
This year also included the last WCHA (regular season) meeting between Minnesota and North Dakota before Minnesota moved to the Big Ten Hockey Conference, and North Dakota moved to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference in 2013–2014.
Elk River native Nate Prosser scored the game-winning goal in the Minnesota Wild game against the Dallas Stars in a 3–2 overtime victory.
Fox Sports North personalities and crew broadcast the Wild game in Kuwait around 5 AM local time for the stationed troops to watch.