A splendid English hockey game

Sunday night at six o’clock, I got my first taste of English hockey.  

Paired up with my English friend Holly, we booked our tickets early in the week and anxiously anticipated our first viewing of an English hockey game (or “match” as they say here!).  After  a little car/directions trouble Holly had in getting to my house (bloody useless navigation systems!), we jumped on the train and set out for Coventry.

We first ate dinner a few doors down from the stadium at “Old Orleans,” a very American restaurant where we even ended up chatting to some fellow Americans, from Texas.  After our tasty meal, we walked the couple minutes to the Skydome arena.

The Edinburgh Capitals fans!

Coventry fans!

Inside the Skydome, we were greeted by welcoming ticket holders, blinking colored overhead lights and an ice rink marking time until its use.  After finding our seats, we absorbed all the sights and sounds of a peppy arena and its spunky Coventry Blaze and Edinburgh Capitals fans.

God Save the Queen...ok, now, time to puck drop!

Soon the Blaze boys appeared on the ice and also, their opponents, the Edinburgh Capitals, all the way from Bonnie Scotland.  What started, as we thought, as an unquestionable victory for the Blaze (they scored twice in the first two minutes), turned out an unpredictable game.  The Capitals fans (all eight of them!) energetically cheered for their team and were unwaveringly set on their Capitals stealing the game back from the Blaze.  Scottish pride!

The Blaze thought they had the Capitals bagged up...not!

The first and second periods saw the Capitals getting more puck control and better passing.  They gained confidence from goals scored and the score at the end of the second period was Blaze 4 and Capitals 3 .  The Capitals paraded their comeback, proving they didn’t make the journey from Scotland for nothing; they came to play, and win.

One of my favorite parts, silly and fun!

"Penalty box" on the butt: too good!

During the break, they offered rink entertainment in the form of kids who did figure skating and the Coventry Blaze mascot played games where participating kids could win prizes.  When I went to look at Blaze merchandise I was surprised to see there wasn't a bunch of stuff, just a small table of items.  Although different than the NHL (we usually have tons of merchandise), the items available still allows Blaze fans the chance to buy items which will help them show their Blaze team spirit.  Also, I now understand that “jersey” in England is the same thing as “shirt.”  I asked if they had a “shirt” (and was very excited when the response was, “yes”), and learned it’s not a cotton shirt with the team’s logo here as it might be stateside.  Gosh, was I surprised!

Nearing the end of the third and it's getting scrappy!

Each team battled on (many penalties were called!) and at the end of the the third, the score was an even 5-5.  Holly and I looked at each other and wondered out loud, “do they do overtime in regular season games in non-NHL leagues in England??”  Not long did our question go unanswered: they do!  1:50 minutes into overtime, Luke Fulghum charged to the blue line shooting the winning goal over the glove-hand of Capitals goalie, Cody Rudkowsky.  It was “too bad so sad” for the Capitals that night, but we know with the support of their animated fans, they’ll be back.

Game over-we out!

We cheered and clapped (I'm not a beer drinker and even I considered buying one, everyone had them and they looked good-but quickly I remembered I'd actually hate it, despite its alluring, game-beverage feel), giggled at both teams’ fans songs and “goblaze” cheers (somewhat unenthusiastically shouted repeatedly from the man behind us-all night!) and we discovered: we’re Blaze girls now.

Blaze girls, and we like it that way- "goBlaze!"