Sound Tigers - Lose!

My ticket-this is how ugly all the tickets look, not just Comp seats.

Last night, we (Lynn, Richard, and me) went to see the AHL Sound Tigers battle the Wolf Pack. Out first game of the AHL season. Our tickets were courtesy of a friend of Lynn's (who has "connections"). However, we did not sit our assigned seats. Rather we sat in the middle, opposite the benches (to the left of the penalty boxes).  The Sound Tigers lost 5-3.

Shot during warm-ups.

We arrived early in order to watch warm-ups. I like to sit behind the goal and watch the pucks come right at me. I did get a puck that squeezed over the glass and through the netting. Richard gave it to a little kid (we have a ton of warm-up pucks from over the years).

Not too many people attended (officially 1857 but probably actually less) because tonight was the 6th game of the World Series in Boston (and the Red Sox ended up winning the game and the Series). However, we did run into Richard's old roller hockey coach (Dean) and a woman that Lynn knew from high school days.

Food was fair. I bought chicken tenders and fries for $8.  Had to go to the other side of the XL Center to find it. Richard took only a few bites because he wanted BBQ sauce. Unfortunately, the XL Center  doesn't have sauce packages (like BPort); instead you have to squeeze out into an open tiny cup from a bulk container. Hard to carry that back to your seat. A 20 ounce bottle of Aquafina was $4. Parking in the garage at the Center was $10.

One exciting moment came during the 2nd intermission when Richard was selected to go on the ice for a contest. They wanted a Sound Tigers fan to compete against a Wolf Pack fan.  Being close to Halloween, they shot little plastic skulls into a hockey net.  Richard got 2 of 3 goals during the first round but so did his competitor. Richard was not so lucky in the 2nd round and lost but he did get a (Wolf Pack) T-shirt out of the deal.

During the first intermission, they had a "Howl-o-Ween" costume parade around the ice. Lots of kids plus a few parents plus some scary adults dressed up like medieval warriors or something. We saw them walking around the concourse before the start of the game. They were dressed in black with black executioner masks and carrying very real looking axes. Don't know how Security let them in - we found it rather unnerving. I wish I had taken a picture. When I wrote this up, I found a short blurb that seemed to indicate they might have been actors from a local amusement park's "Haunted Graveyard." Pretty spooky.

Links:
http://www.soundtigers.com/
http://theahl.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=1011223

Revd W11/6/13 for Howl-o-Ween parade notes.