Sunbury Stampede | Another Country

Yesterday, 11/18/2006 the boys traveled 2 hours deep into coal country to Sunbury, PA the home of the Stampede. Traveling here reminded me of traveling to the 1000 Island region of Canada due to its small town feel. Upon entering the Sunbury community center, it almost seems like you are entering a ski lodge of a small Pocono ski resort, with the smell of burning wood in the fireplace and the hot chocolate. A cozy little arena, with a terrible view. The one thing that I remember about this arena from last time we played there, is the metal strip at the arena entrance that threatens to dull any skates that happen to graze across it. Which as I recall happened to Zero-Zero last time, a mistake he did not repeat.

Anyway, the trip to the arena was really educational for the kids, we had a little discussion about the coal mines as we drove through the burning town of Centralia and through the other coal towns such as Shamokin and Ashland. We were unable to find the burned out dump truck that we had seen on a previous trip but did spot some smoking fissures.

So we made it to the arena a little more than an hour ahead of schedule. Time enough for the boy to put his skates on and get a little ice time. Free ice time, you got to love that. I was able to indulge in one of the snack bar’s hot dogs, which was quite tasty inspite of not being a slaw dog, which is one of my favorites. My daughter had one of their soft pretzels, and if I had a pretzel list, that would be on it.

So its game time. The arena has the worst seating. Well not so much the seating(they are the same cold metal that is most arenas) but more like the view. The supports for the building block quite a bit of the view, so that almost half of the game was very difficult to view. It almost made me appreciate the Voices arena at the Bodyzone, which also has quite pitiful seating.

The Game

Over all the boys played really well, with a definite increase in passing. At the end of the first period the Royals were in the lead 0:1. Come the second period, the Stampede took the lead and maintained well into the third, when the Royals tied it up. Just at the bell, the Royals got a shot off, but the refs, did not call it. Quite unuasually, 5 minutes was put on the clock for over time, which resulted in no scores for either side. So we then go into a shoot out, where the stampede got 3 and the Royals got a dissappointing 1. End score 5:3.
The end score does not reflect anything but what was on the score board. The boys were robbed. But even still they played well, and as someone once said its not whether you “win or loose, its how you play the game that counts”.
Another unusually thing about the game was the number of penalties. There were 3 penalties during the whole game, which is closer to the number of penalties they get in one period. These refs must not have had to watch the video on the new standards. Either that or they needed to get new glasses.