The puck drops on the internationally-known Minnesota State Boys’ Hockey Tournament Wednesday at the Xcel Energy Center.

Minnesota’s corn farmers are proud to sponsor this year’s Minnesota State Boys’ Hockey Tournament. Look for the Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) logo along the Xcel Energy Center boards and for MCGA commercials airing during each game.

Last year 118,249 people attended the tournament and hundreds of thousands more watched all the action live on KSTC-TV, Channel 45. Click here for more information on all the teams who made this year’s tournament, which can also be viewed live on KSTC-TV, Channel 45.

Corn growing areas of Minnesota are well represented at this year’s tournament. New Ulm plays Mahtomedi in the tournament’s first game at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. New Ulm is in Brown County, which harvested 26,690,000 bushels of corn in 2014. That makes New Ulm the leader for corn bushels harvested among all the teams in this year’s tourney.

Will New Ulm’s corn-harvesting dominance give it the edge it needs to make a run at a state title? Well, it certainly can’t hurt!

In case you were wondering, here’s the full breakdown of where each school in this year’s tournament ranks in harvesting corn, measured by bushels harvested in 2014.

New Ulm (Brown County) 26,690,000 bushels
St. Cloud Apollo (Stearns) 20,948,000
Lakeville North (Dakota) 15,331,000
St. Thomas Academy (Dakota) 15,331,000
East Grand Forks (Polk) 8,710,000
New Prague (Scott) 4,357,000
Mahtomedi (Washington) 3,207,000
Breck School (Hennepin) 1,293,000
Eden Prairie (Hennepin) 1,293,000
Edina (Hennepin) 1,293,000
Spring Lake Park (Anoka) 700,000
Blaine (Anoka) 700,000
Hermantown (St. Louis) 0
Duluth East (St. Louis) 0
Bemidji (Beltrami) 0
Hill-Murray (Ramsey) 0

Best of luck to all the teams playing in this year’s Minnesota State Boys’ Hockey Tournament (even the teams who come from non-corn growing areas).