Originally Published on November 10, 2007
In the crease
I gleefully accepted, and then invited my friend Jenny, who graduated from UW.
When my son learned that I was going to a Tech hockey game without him, he was
upset, so I wound up calling the MTU ticket office and buying tickets for the
Friday game too. I neglected to check the calendar first, and the Husky/Badger
games in Madison fell on a weekend he would be with his father.
The other male Husky hockey fan in my family, my father, was more than happy to use the extra ticket. We met on Friday on the east side of Madison, and drove downtown to the Kohl Center together. Our seats were three rows back from the team bench, so by the end of the first period we were using four of our senses to take in the game: the chill of the air in the ice arena, the sounds of skates on ice and the puck hitting sticks, the sight of the hockey players checking each other into the glass...and the smell.
After many seasons of being in the bottom of the pack in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, the Huskies were the top team in the WCHA going into Friday’s game. It was very satisfying to be there for the win.
There was just a small group of Tech fans clustered behind the team, easy targets for the sometimes humorous but too often unsportsmanlike conduct of Badger hockey fans (particularly the student section.)
Walking down State Street before the Saturday game, I spotted members of the MTU pep band, sporting their distinctive black and gold overalls.
I couldn’t resist shouting “Go Tech” to them. They stood out again in the Kohl Center, prompting the student Badger fans to point them out while chanting a word that is a euphemism for a body part.
In a break between periods, a sweet motorcycle was rolled onto the ice as the finale to a contest. Three contestants were given keys to try, and the one who started the bike would win. In the row ahead of us were two couples. The female halves of the couples were both at least three points higher on a 1-10 scale than their boyfriends. They were having an animated conversation about the bikes, and turned around and included Jenny and I in it.
"Hockey and motorcycles," said the cuter of the two guys. "What else is there to talk about?"
"Food and sex," I said.
He nodded sagely and asked his girlfriend if she wanted to switch topics.
When the second period started, MTU scored in the first 30 seconds. I jumped to my feet and cheered, the only person on my feet in that corner and level of the Kohl Center.
The guy I'd talked to turned around and said "What the f@&k?"
I told him I went to MTU, and he replied, "I don't give a shit."
It was amusing, but he turned out to be a pretty decent guy, though he gave me crap when the Badgers scored. At the end, when it was obvious the Badgers would win, he turned around and said it was a good game, shook my hand, telling me that Tech was a much better team now than it had been in previous years.
Though MTU lost to the Badgers on Saturday, it was still an exciting game to watch, even if my aunt and uncle’s tickets had me deep in Badger territory.
The other male Husky hockey fan in my family, my father, was more than happy to use the extra ticket. We met on Friday on the east side of Madison, and drove downtown to the Kohl Center together. Our seats were three rows back from the team bench, so by the end of the first period we were using four of our senses to take in the game: the chill of the air in the ice arena, the sounds of skates on ice and the puck hitting sticks, the sight of the hockey players checking each other into the glass...and the smell.
After many seasons of being in the bottom of the pack in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, the Huskies were the top team in the WCHA going into Friday’s game. It was very satisfying to be there for the win.
There was just a small group of Tech fans clustered behind the team, easy targets for the sometimes humorous but too often unsportsmanlike conduct of Badger hockey fans (particularly the student section.)
Walking down State Street before the Saturday game, I spotted members of the MTU pep band, sporting their distinctive black and gold overalls.
I couldn’t resist shouting “Go Tech” to them. They stood out again in the Kohl Center, prompting the student Badger fans to point them out while chanting a word that is a euphemism for a body part.
In a break between periods, a sweet motorcycle was rolled onto the ice as the finale to a contest. Three contestants were given keys to try, and the one who started the bike would win. In the row ahead of us were two couples. The female halves of the couples were both at least three points higher on a 1-10 scale than their boyfriends. They were having an animated conversation about the bikes, and turned around and included Jenny and I in it.
"Hockey and motorcycles," said the cuter of the two guys. "What else is there to talk about?"
"Food and sex," I said.
He nodded sagely and asked his girlfriend if she wanted to switch topics.
When the second period started, MTU scored in the first 30 seconds. I jumped to my feet and cheered, the only person on my feet in that corner and level of the Kohl Center.
The guy I'd talked to turned around and said "What the f@&k?"
I told him I went to MTU, and he replied, "I don't give a shit."
It was amusing, but he turned out to be a pretty decent guy, though he gave me crap when the Badgers scored. At the end, when it was obvious the Badgers would win, he turned around and said it was a good game, shook my hand, telling me that Tech was a much better team now than it had been in previous years.
Though MTU lost to the Badgers on Saturday, it was still an exciting game to watch, even if my aunt and uncle’s tickets had me deep in Badger territory.
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