Interest, business rise in Red Deer as Oilers progress to Stanley Cup Final

With the Edmonton Oilers set to play Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday, more fans of the blue-and-orange south of Alberta's capital city on Highway 2 are rooting for them.

The rise in interest in the National Hockey League team has been a boon for business in Red Deer, where restaurants and bars reported more and more fans as it progressed through the playoffs.

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"Each series, it's built and built," Tara Hardie of Boston Pizza told CTV News Edmonton.

She said the atmosphere inside her Red Deer restaurant was a bit quieter during the earlier rounds of the Oilers' playoff run, but that as the team got deeper and deeper into it, the seats filled up with fans.

"I feel like the Oilers owe us after the dark decade of our bars being empty," Hardie said jokingly, adding that "butts in seats ... have been amazing for us."

The level of excitement may not be as high as what you'd see in Edmonton, but Red Deer's mayor says support for the orange and blue is all over his city.

"Every school that I've visited in the last week or so have 'Oilers' all over the place," Ken Johnston said.

"They have 'Go Oilers Go' on their signage outside."

If the Oilers do manage to win four more games on this NHL post-season run and beat the Florida Panthers, the Cup could visit Red Deer.

Both Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and head coach Kris Knoblauch played for the city's major junior team, the Red Deer Rebels, as did the Panthers' Josh Mahura.