Manchester Monarchs

Last night Hubby and I went to a local semi-pro hockey game. We're not fans of hockey but daughter Jamie's football team The Manchester Freedom, was having a fundraising night and we bought tickets to support the team. We had a really nice time. The team had a pre-game gathering at a local sports bar. Hubby and I figured we had to eat dinner so we might as well go. It was like a cocktail hour with food. Then place was right across the street from the arena where the was so we walked over after dinner. A semi-pro game is so much more fun than a professional game. Before the game started they had a local bunch of kids sing the National Anthem. They had the giant Lion Head blown up for the hometown team to come out through. The action on the ice was exciting. During the first intermission they had some tiny tiny children who are budding hockey players come out to play a ten-minute "game". They were just hilarious. "T-ball on ice". There was more falling down than skating, but I'm sure the little kids were thrilled to death to be skating at a real arena. They also had the Lion Mascot come out and shoot t-shirts up into the stands with a bazooka. There was a blimp flying around dropping gift certificates to a local restaurant on the crowd. During the second intermission they had the famous "Chuck-a-Puck". For a price you could buy a foam puck with a number on it to throw out onto the ice and try to hit a target and win $100. We got a free Chuck-a-Puck with our ticket. Sadly, I couldn't get the puck to go farther than the row of seats below me. Regular hockey fans must know what happens, because the people in the lowest group of seats near the ice knew enough to turn around after chucking their own pucks and catch all the pucks that were raining down from the seats about and throw them onto the ice for us. Between some of the action, the jumbo-tron would put up video of people in the stands dancing or waving or acting like crazy people. My son Nick and his girlfriend Kelly and their two friends managed to act silly enough to get their faces on the jumbo-tron. All in all it was a fun evening and we helped out my daughter's football team.