Islanders overpower the mighty Blackhawks, 5-3!

The NHL is back after the Olympic break that shut down the league for a few weeks. The Chicago Blackhawks, one of the best teams in the league these days came to the Nassau Coliseum to take on the NY Islanders.

In the first period, the Blackhawks didn't miss a beat they played very well. They wound up getting 22 shots on goal to the Islanders 9. The score was 2-1 Blackhawks.

Things changed fast once the second period started, the Islanders came out strong. Just 2:27 into the period, Blake Comeau who had the first Islander goal of the game, found the net again and he tied the game at 2. 25 seconds later, Jon Sim buried the puck in the net giving the Islanders a 3-2 lead.

The Blackhawks proceeded to pull their starting goaltender, Antti Niemi in favor of Cristobal Huet. 7:06 into the second period, Richard Park of the Islanders greeted Huet with a blast, he fired a dart past him to give the Islanders a 2 goal cushion.

With only 17.3 seconds left in the period, Blake Comeau lit the lamp again. His 3rd goal of the game which is known as a hat trick.

Ironicly, the last NHL game I saw just before the Olympic break in Montreal on 2/13, Daniel Briere of the Philadelphia Flyers had a hat trick as well.

I was thinking of Chrissy Capp, the young lady who sold me the ticket that night. We were talking and she said she had never seen a hat trick until a week or so before that game in Montreal. Now I saw a second one myself in a short period of time. Mind you, I've seen many hockey games in my time and I don't remember seeing many hat tricks either. With scoring down these days in the game, they're fewer and far between.

In the third period, the Islanders held on to the lead. The Blackhawks kept applying pressure but they couldn't find the net until there was just 4:17 left when they made it a 5-3 game. That's the way it ended. Islander goaltender Dwayne Roloson stopped 41 of 44 shots to earn the victory.

Special note: After the second period of play, a surprise visitor, friend and proud customer of Royalty Tours, Manny Morales was in the house. It was odd to see him.

Manny is a big NY Ranger fan. He has Ranger season tickets. He's had them for the past 29 years. He said it was a long story why he was at the Nassau Coliseum. I asked him how he got out there. Since he doesn't drive he had to resort to taking the LIRR from Penn Station to Westbury. That cost him $19 round trip he said. That didn't include an another $7 to take a van to and from the Nassau Coliseum. I was beside myself when I heard it cost him so much to get there.

When you give royalty $26 you get a lot of bang for your buck not a torchure ride to and from NYC to the Nassau Coliseum. Manny knows firsthand that he got the shaft in this case but he apparently didn't have a choice.

I just wish I knew I would have arranged to accomodate him. He'll know for the next time if there is one.

Flyers trick the Canadiens, 6-2!

The Philadelphia Flyers went North of the border to face the Montreal Canadiens in the back end of their home and home series. The Flyers had won 3-2 in Philadelphia on Friday night. So they came in looking for the sweep.

Royalty was also in attendance to witness it. My partner Michael Casiano aka "The King" and I left in the morning and we drove all day to get there. I rented a car from Avis which is located a mile and a half from my house. I picked up the King at the Grand Central Station Post Office where he works. He was working overtime probably for the last time for the time being. Needless to say, he needed the money.

Traveling from place to place does get expensive especially when you do it as often as we do. I always do my best to minimize cost and maximize enjoyment.

In this case, we took a ride up the "Northway" I-87 up through New York State. Once we got halfway up there the traffic thinned out to practically nobody. Unlike most states in our country, state troopers were in full force. Luckily for us we weren't victimized. We didn't need any unexpected expenses.

With that being said, we still needed tickets for the hockey game. Before we actually arrived in Montreal at 5:25PM we stopped to check into a hotel in Plattsburgh. We also got a bite to eat at Wendy's. We took it out since we were pressed for time.

We then proceeded to get to the border to go through Customs to enter Canada. Unlike previous visits, no hassle this time. We were questioned if we had tickets to the hockey game though. We responded not yet. We hoped to pick up singles at the box office. We finally arrived in Montreal on schedule at 5:25PM when the car was parked.

Actually that was 5 minutes earlier than I wanted to be there. We then had to feed the parking meter until 6PM and we were good for the night. Once we got out of the car it was freezing cold and windy.

I said to myself this is going to be fun trying to get tickets. Off we went to the Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens. We get to the box office hoping they had cancellations at the window. No such luck. Time to good to work.

After searching for 45 minutes or so, I came across a few different people from the States. After asking different people who mainly spoke French. Thankfully for them we got in relatively cheap considering. The scalpers which there were many wanted 3 or 4 times as much for a single ticket. We were willing to pay a price if necessary but not what they wanted.

We wound getting 2 separate single seats so we didn't get to sit together. I was very lucky because the young lady I bought the first ticket from was really nice.

Her name was Chrissy Capp. We both exchanged stories throughout the game which made for a very memorable night. I gave her my business card in hopes we can stay in touch. We'll have to wait and see about that. She's a big hockey fan.

As for the game itself, it started with a fight only 4 seconds into it when Ian LaPerriere and Ryan O'Bryne squared off. Things settled there after. The Flyers started fast. Daniel Briere opened the scoring with his first of 3 goals which included a penalty shot. The Flyers lead 3-0 after the 1st period and never looked back. They went on to win easily, 6-2!