Royalty sees a local NHL doubleheader after Nemo!

Prince at Prudential Center

Saturday morning the King and I woke up and we looked out of the window and we noticed the snow was over. Luckily for us, Nemo only left 8 inches in Central Park. With that being said, we escaped another potential disaster by mother nature.

Shortly thereafter, we got a phone call from our friend Dennis Barbera who said earlier in the week that he was going to drive and pick us up. Dennis lives out on Long Island where they got more snow. Fortunately for us, he was able to get his car out without a problem. We arranged to meet him within walking distance from our place in Astoria, Queens.

We met up with him around 11:15AM and he drove us to Newark, NJ. We went to the Prudential Center to see the Devils play the Pittsburgh Penguins in a matinee affair.

Apparently Nemo didn't stop everybody in the area from getting to the arena because majority of the announced sellout crowd of 17,625 actually showed up. It should be noted that there were a good number of Penguin fans who were present & accounted for. Public transportation was running with some delays. Thankfully we got a ride. Since there was nobody on the road it made for a very easy ride especially since the major roads were all plowed and cleared.

As for the game we saw, the Penguins got on the scoreboard first just 1:23 into the first period as Brandon Sutter lit the lamp on the power play to give the Penguins an early 1-0 lead. It stayed that way until late in the second period. That's when the Devils got even. Thanks to Stefan Matteau of the Devils who scored his first career NHL goal to make it 1-1 with 3:29 to go. In the third period, the Devils took the lead with 9:04 left in regulation to go up, 2-1 as Adam Henrique put the puck in the net. The Devils add some insurance with 6:52 to go as Bobby Butler scored his first goal as a Devil to make it 3-1. The Devils shut down the Penguins the rest of the way as they beat the Penguins who have played well thus far in the shortened season.

Prince at Nassau Coliseum

After the game, Dennis drove us out to Long Island. We stopped off at McDonald's for a pre game meal. When we were done we drove up the road to the Nassau Coliseum where we saw another NHL game as the Islanders were hosting the visiting Buffalo Sabres. Unfortunately the Buffalo Boys, Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell couldn't join us for the festivities. They were there with us in spirit though. The same was true for our pal Mike Carroll aka Sabre Mike who was planning to be there but he couldn't get there thanks to Nemo. However our pals Michael Abrams and Rob Pierlewski did make it. It was nice to see them again.

As for the game we saw, the Sabres broke through first when Thomas Vanek scored with 10:49 to go in the first period to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead. The Islanders got the equalizer late in the period with just 42 seconds to go. John Tavares found the net to tie the game at one. In the second period, both teams exchanged goals as Christian Ehrhoff gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead with 7:39 to go. The Islanders answered back with 2:25 to go as Colin McDonald tied it again at two. In the third period, the Sabres scored the game winning goal with 12:25 to go as Alexander Sulzer made it 3-2. The Islanders had a chance late to tie it again but John Tavares failed to score on a penalty shot he was awarded after he was pulled down on a breakaway.

The Sabres were very fortunate to escape with the victory in front of announced crowd of 12,608 which included a number of Sabre fans who were able to get there. They were out shot 43-15. In addition, the Islanders also hit the post a few times. The bottom line is we got a win for our pals. It wasn't pretty but they'll take it.

After the game, Dennis drove us back to Queens. We were very grateful for his kindness. He gave us the royal treatment on this day.

Stay tuned for another special post that will recap the local NBA doubleheader I did on Sunday.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman