NAHL Showcase Preview

Sep 24, 2024

The New Jersey Titans will head to Blaine, Minnesota today for the 2024 NAHL Showcase.  Dubbed as “The Greatest Show on Ice”, the annual showcase tournament pairs teams against opponents from outside their own division at the National Sport Center’s Super Rink, a facility with 8 sheets of ice.  They are the only interdivisional games on the schedule until the Robertson Cup Championship in May.

The New Jersey Titans will begin the 2024 NAHL Showcase as the home team, hosting the Fairbanks Ice Dogs at 2:45pm on Wednesday, September 25th. It will be the first meeting between the teams since September 18th, 2019, a 2-1 win for the Titans, and will be the 10th contest between the teams. Fairbanks finished in 6th place last year in the Midwest Division with a record of 22-30-8, missing the playoffs after finishing in third place in 2022.

Then, the Titans will face a stiff test as they host the Lone Star Brahmas, the defending Robertson Cup Champions, on Thursday, September 26th, at 4:00pm. It is the second season in a row that New Jersey will see the previous season’s champion, after skating against Oklahoma last season. It will be the second meeting between Lone Star and New Jersey. In their previous match up on September 20th, 2017, both teams’ goaltenders pitched a shutout before the Titans won in a shootout with goals from Hunter Alden and Nick Boyagian.

Finally, New Jersey will wrap up their showcase in a rematch of the 2022 Robertson Cup Final as they face the Anchorage Wolverines for the first time in regular season play on Friday, September 27th, at 10:00am. Anchorage won the Midwest Division last season, advancing to the Robertson Cup Semifinals before being swept by Lone Star. In the only other meeting between the teams in 2022, New Jersey shut out Anchorage 3-0 to win the Titans’ first Robertson Cup in franchise history.

New Jersey will look to leave the Showcase with a winning record for the first time since 2019.  They have recorded 2 wins and 10 losses at the Showcase since that season.  Last year, The Titans opened the Showcase with a 5-4 overtime win over the Minnesota Wilderness, before dropping games to Wisconsin, Austin, and Oklahoma.  New Jersey enters the 2024 Showcase with an early season record of 1-2-1.  All Showcase games will be available to watch on NAHLtv.com