When Jeremy Harder and his wife Tammy moved into their house in Schanzenfeld almost a decade ago, work on their unfinished basement was on the to do list.

Jeremy, a long-time Winnipeg Jets fan, began a project that would make his favorite hockey team proud and would also be the envy of everyone who has scrimmaged on the ice or grew up playing road hockey.

The Mini-Stick Arena was born.

“I needed a place for Cole and Kade to burn off some steam and what better way to do it than play some hockey,” Harder told Golden West’s Tyler Hildebrand. “We had the space downstairs so I got a bit creative and to the extreme it looks like.”

“During the hockey season, when our billet players are living with us, on a slow day we’ll play for an hour," said Harder. "On a good day we’ll play for three hours. The games are so intense, you only play for 15 minutes at a time and then you need a long break because it’s pretty exhausting.”

The Harder’s have been a Winkler Flyers billet family for the past few years and Jared says players can’t wait to go downstairs and play.

“Some of them play non-stop and some of them wait until we got a game going. It doesn’t take much arm twisting to get a game going.”

As for working on the arena, Harder says his inspiration comes in various ways.

“I’m a pretty big Jets fan. One night I was watching them play Boston and they were getting blown out by the Bruins. I said I’m not watching this anymore. I went downstairs and painted the Jets logo at centre ice and one thing led to another.”

“I was looking a getting mural printed that I could stick on the wall that would look like fans,’ added Harder. “I found some pictures from the old Winnipeg Arena that would look really cool down there.”

Harder does have a favorite part of the Mini-Stick Arena.

“Probably the picture of the Queen. When you say Winnipeg Jets and especially Jets 1.0 and you mention the arena, the Queen is what everyone mentions.

Jeremy Harder also pointed out the Mini-Stick Arena will never be completely finished.

“There’s always something you can do better.”