Focal Point

From the boards that surround the hockey rink located in my neighborhood.

The Last Of Winter

Well, after a bit of a fight with winter trying to make a come back in the Twin Cities the past few weeks, the seasonal warmth finally took it's toll. This little patch of snow nestled along the hockey rink boards, the part that receives minimal amount of direct sunlight, was all I could find.

Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche Update Series: Avs lead 3-2
Game 6: Saturday, April 19 @ 9:00 [CT]

My Daily Photo Favorites: New Orleans, Louisiana | St Paul, Minnesota | Minneapolis, Minnesota

Game One, NHL Playoffs, Wild versus Avs

Despiting skating and playing really good, the Minnesota Wild found themselves trailing 2-0 after two periods of play. I was in attendance for Game One of the series. I split my Wild season tickets with two other people, and we are alternating the playoff games. The crowd was very energetic, very loud, very enthusiastic during the contest. Down by two goals, the Wild rallied to tie the game with goals by Rolston and Fedoruk. The game went into overtime, but Colorado scored the game winning goal at almost the half way point in the first over time period. A tough loss, a fun game, time to work harder for Game Two.

The main shot was taken between periods, the smaller middle shot was after a Wild goal, the camera shot was a behind the scenes look at the camera crew from my seats.

  

Thank You Minnesota Wild

Tonight the Minnesota Wild clinched their first ever Northwest Division Title. What an exciting game and you have no idea how awesome it was to be there as it happened. I brought my camera to the game to take some photos for the Twin Cities Daily Photo site. Wouldn't you know it, I had dead batteries in my camera. I want to thank the couple that gave me their batteries as they exited their seats so I could take a few photos.

Tonight was fan appreciation night. The Minnesota Wild gave away a lot of prizes, plus the players gave their game jersey's to selected fans. You got to meet the player and he signed the jersey for you. It was a night to remember.

  

Minnesota Wild Fan Sites

Wild View From Section 216
Hitting The Post
Wild Puck Banter
18,568 Reasons Why....

When Pucks Fly

Watch for flying pucks? I didn't know pucks could fly....hahaha! Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week.

A little bit different type of photo today. I took this one while sitting at a Park of Cottage Grove Wolfpack hockey game versus Mounds View. From my seat, I kept looking at the warning, but saw the flag in the background. While looking at it through my cameras viewfinder, I really liked the looks of the shot.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Bellefonte, Pennsylvania | Malé, Maldives | Las Vegas, Nevada | Mckinney, Texas | Wroclaw, Poland | Denver, Colorado | Saint, Louis, Missouri | New York, New York

Minnesota Wild

This is my third season as a Minnesota Wild season ticket owner. I split a pair of seats with a co-worker of mine. I've sat in the same seats in section 103 game after game. Well, I didn't have tickets for tonights match up versus the Vancouver Canucks, but I wanted to attend. At the last minute, I decided to head down to the ticket office and see if I could get one seat to the contest. With a bit of luck, I found myself in the Club Level seats, in one of the stadiums corners. A much higher perspective on the game, but I was able to see the plays develop at this level. I found myself watching all of the players intertwine, but would constantly miss the big check into the boards. From the lower level, I could anticipate what was going to happen during the game, but find it much tougher to see the plays develop. I guess there is a trade off at what level you watch the game from.

Unfortunately for the Wild, they didn't play so well at times. Had the lead for most of the game and should have won, but Vancouver earned a tie, then ultimately won the game in overtime. I'll take the point.

  
My Daily Photo Favorites: Larchmont, New York | Oslo, Norway | Chicago, Illinois | Seoul, South Korea

Interesting Links Of The Day: Total Lunar Eclipse today starting at 7:45 CMT | Find out if you'll see the eclipse today

Minnesota Hockey Day 2008

Yesterday, March 9, 2008 was the first annual Minnesota Hockey Day. The entire state celebrates the sport of hockey from the pee wee leagues all the way to the professionals. The biggest game of the day in my opinion was held in Baudette, Minnesota, which is very far away from me. What was special about this game was it was an official high school hockey game played outdoors. This is the second year of the outdoor game and it's probably what sparked the Minnesota Hockey Day idea. While I didn't attend the game in Baudette, me and my family did attend a high school hockey game held in my city of Cottage Grove. The Park Wolfpack matched up against Mounds View Mustangs. One special thing about the game was I have a cousin that plays for the Varsity team for Mounds View. Unfortunately he was scratched from the game or he has an injury, I really was unsure why he didn't play. He was in street cloths for this game. The Mustangs did look sharp tonight as they crushed the Wolfpack by a score of 7-0.

  

Wild Win Game 4

Photo I took this evening before NHL Western Conference Quarterfinal playoff Game 4 started between the Minnesota Wild and the Anaheim Ducks. The Wild were victorious tonight at last. There was a towel placed on each seat back for every fan in attendance at the game. We arrived fairly early and I was able to get this shot before the people started filling the seats.

Playoff Hockey Time

I am a big fan of the Minnesota Wild. Tonight is their first game of the playoff season and I wanted to post a photo during the intermission of one of the games I attended this season. The Zamboni had just cleared the ice, the lights were dimmed and the Wild logos were dancing on ice.

Do You Believe In Miracles

For those of you who recall the 1980's chant by Al Michaels as Herb Brooks and the Gold medal winning US Hockey team skated to victory. Brooks was the coach of the team. I was ten years old, going on eleven and I recall my dad being very excited about the hockey game. It was very early in the morning and he said something along the lines of what a historic game that I witnessed. Being ten, I didn't really understand the significants of it at the time. But I can honestly say, I watched the hockey team win the gold medal. I'm not sure how much of it I watched, but I did watch some of it.

If you have seen the movie 'Miracle' based on the 1980 team, they had a lot of actual footage in the movie. When I saw the movie for the first time, it was deja vu seeing and listening to the games as they were played out. What stood out the most was seeing the Russian's kneeling on one knee just looking at the US team celebrate and I can still hear my dad mentioning to me about the look on their faces.

This Herb Brooks statue is outside of the River Center, it would be the east exit as you head towards Rice Park.