Trip Notes: This trip turned out to be my most fanatical of them all. At the last minute, I took Friday off to meet T in Ohio for the Blue Jackets game. Flying into OH was far from cheap so I decided to use my free Frontier flight to fly into Indianapolis and make the 3 hr drive to Columbus. I knew I would be cutting it close on time, but I had no idea it would be as close as 20 minutes before the game started. After finding a parking spot in the nearby garage, I met T in front of the arena. She had just finished dinner with her family so it worked out perfect. She was out there for the weekend visiting family. A few of them joined us at the game…yet they didn’t sit with us. We had gotten our seats earlier. After the game we made the drive to London, OH where we’d be staying at her Grandmother’s house. I had thoughts of going to the Red Wings game the following night only if I could find a ticket. Nothing was available up to the day before the game so I was expecting to be in OH for the remainder of the trip. Saturday morning I decided to check TicketMaster to see if anything became available and little to my dismay, there were tickets available. So I bought a $20 ticket and got in the car and made the 3 ½ hr trek to Detroit. Tracey stayed back in OH with her fam. I even made it to Detroit with some time to spare. Rarely do I leave early, but for this one I had to leave about 15 minutes early. I had a 6 am flight out of Indy the next morning and it was also Day light savings so I thought I’d be losing an hour. Little did I know Indy does not change time so I didn’t lose the hour like I expected. I found this our after reaching the airport. I loaded up on caffeine and sugar to help me endure the 5 hr trip back to Indy. Barely able to stay awake, I pulled up to the rental car return around 2 am. I had made it just in time. They were just about to close up. They dropped me off at the airport where I laid on the floor until 4 am when the airport started to open up. I was so high on sugar I laid there in pain. By the time I made it over to the ticket counter to stand in line I was feeling pretty bad. Before I had a chance to pass out I laid down on the floor in hopes to prevent any attention to myself. It worked. : ) I wasn’t the only person who didn’t know about the time not changing….Frontiers employees were all an hour late. At this time I was thinking to myself….”what was I thinking??? I’m sooo tired” After a short delay we were aloud to board the plane. I was able to get a little sleep on the plane, but not much. I still felt queasy from all the sugar and lack of sleep but found a way to get some rest. I bet you’re all thinking what I was at this time…my journey is almost over and soon I’ll be home. Well, that didn’t happen. We ran into one obstacle on the flight home. DIA was closed. Ugh! Instead of landing in Denver, we were routed to lovely Scottsbluff, NE. Joy! To top off the delay, we couldn’t exit the plane because that airport wasn’t equipped to handle planes that big. So we were all stuck on the plane an extra hour. Though I was able to get a little extra sleep, I still didn’t feel all that great. Eventually we made it back to Denver and I was able to make it home. However, it was still a few more hours before I was able to get any sleep. Cyn had invited me to the Avs game that afternoon so soon after dropping my luggage off at home, I got back on the road and headed to the Pepsi Center. There was no way I was going to pass up on 3rd row tickets behind the Avs bench! To sum up my weekend, I made it to 3 final home games of the season in 3 days. Not bad, eh? :) Oh, and eventually I got some sleep.
Arena Notes: Nationwide is one of the nicest in the league. I like the huge pictures of the players on the outside glass at the main entrance. It's located it the heart of downtown Columbus near many good bars and restaurants. The arena was easy to find and there was lots of garage parking nearby. In my opinion, the only downside to the arena is that the seats are all packed in like sardines. There wasn't much space to move around. We sat in the top row on the 3rd level in the corner. A long ways away but still a good seat. There was a great turnout of fans that night. Nationwide opened up in 200 and seats 18,500 for hockey. Their mascot is Stinger a hornet. The only retired number is leauge wide which is 99 - Wayne Gretzky.
Game Notes: Whether it improves Colorado's position in the playoffs or not, the Avalanche appreciated their 4-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night.
"Obviously you want to go in playing well," Avalanche coach Tony Granato said. "We want to feel confident in our special teams and to be able to close out teams. We have had a tough time in the past month or so finding ways to win."
The Avalanche franchise still has a chance to win its 10th straight division title. They came into the game tied for the top spot in the Northwest Division with Vancouver, with the Canucks holding the tiebreaker.
"Even if Vancouver wins, it's good for us to get a win," said Peter Forsberg, who had three assists. "If they win they win, we can't do anything about it."
Marek Svatos, who just came off the injured list, was the star of the game after scoring his first two NHL goals.
Svatos opened the season with the Avalanche but then injured his shoulder and had to have surgery for the second time in nine months. He was playing his first game since getting hurt Oct. 12, 2003, against St. Louis.
"I didn't play hockey for five months," Svatos said with a big smile. "I'm really excited about starting my season again."
He scored on the fourth and fifth shots of his career -- in only his third career game -- to end Colorado's five-game road losing streak.
"He played well. He's a good, smart hockey player," Forsberg said. "He certainly fit in good today."
Trailing 1-0 heading into the second period, the Avalanche scored three times.
Svatos tied it on a rush off a nifty pass from Milan Hejduk. Joe Sakic then gave the Avalanche the lead when he cleaned up the rebound on Paul Kariya's shot for his 33rd goal. Kariya added an empty-net goal.
Svatos made it 3-1 on a goal set up by Forsberg. Forsberg slipped a defender at the goal line and tossed a pass into the slot where Svatos' shot deflected off defenseman Luke Richardson's skate and then off goaltender Marc Denis' stick.
"He (Granato) told me I was going to be on the left side," Svatos said. "I was shaking before he told me, and after he told me I was shaking even more."
Nikolai Zherdev and Jaroslav Spacek each had a goal and an assist for Columbus, which lost its third in a row.
Before the game, Columbus owner John H. McConnell spoke to the capacity crowd in a video.
"We've got some great young players coming up who will be superstars in the future," he said. Rick Nash and Nikolai Zherdev are just two; there are many more in the wings. You're going to see a great hockey team in the future."
The Blue Jackets took the first five shots and led 1-0 after the opening minute.
On the power play, Zherdev circled around the goal cage and wristed a shot high over goaltender David Aebischer's shoulder. It was Zherdev's 13th goal of the season.
"That's our team right now," Columbus interim coach Gerard Gallant said. "We're a pretty good, young team but we seem to make these mistakes and we just can't get back in it."
Meanwhile, the Avalanche tuned their game for what's ahead.
"Of course, we want to win the division," Granato said. "Will it ruin our playoff chances? No. If you're able to win your division going into the playoffs, you get a little momentum. You get home ice for one round, maybe two rounds. So it's important that we finish strong."
M0re Game notes: Columbus has 60 points heading into its season-ending game at Detroit on Saturday night, the second-lowest total in the franchise's four years. ... Teemu Selanne's assist on Sakic's goal extended his points streak to three games. ... The Blue Jackets won the last meeting between the teams on Feb. 28 on Spacek's overtime goal. It was the only time in 15 meetings Columbus had won. ... Colorado has given up a power-play goal in its last five games.
(*Game Notes taken from espn.com*)
