As mentioned in yesterday's blog, this weekend is filled with sports....Charlotte Bobcat's basketball on Friday night, Carolina Hurricanes hockey on Saturday night and the Super Bowl on Sunday (watching on TV, not attending, unfortunately). My cousin Peter and I drove to Raleigh to see the Carolina Hurricanes take on the Atlanta Thrashers.
There are a couple of interesting pieces of information about this arena that make this game special in my efforts to raise money for the Jimmy V Foundation.1. The North Carolina State Wolfpack also play their basketball games in this arena. North Carolina State is of course the team Jim Valvano coached to the 1983 National Championship (unfortunately, my view of the championship banner for that year was obstructed - it is just to the right of the 1974 banner).
2. My grandfather's cousin played basketball for North Carolina State. He has his number hanging from the rafters (Burleson, #24). He was 7'2" tall and did play in the NBA at one point.The first thing Peter and I noticed about this arena....the food. They do it right here. With some incredible options, including prime rib sandwiches, bar-b-q whatever and micro-brews. Either way, the place smells unbelievable. We settled on bar-b-q pork on top of nachos and cheese.....don't knock it until you try it.
We had pretty good seats in the lower level and saw plenty of action right in front of us. We were surrounded by die-hard Hurricane fans who were extremely knowledgeable about the sport and the individual Hurricane players. When these fans got upset with how the team was playing, they screamed at the players by first name, as if they were friends. There was also a very good showing of Atlanta fans in the crowd as well, which made for a very exciting game, especially since both teams are currently fighting for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The game itself started out rather slow and was tied 1-1 after 2 periods. However, in the 3rd period both teams scored twice, including the game-tying goal by the Thrashers with less than 2 minutes to play and an empty net. I was kind of hoping to see a shoot-out, but the Hurricanes won it in OT.My record for the home games of the teams I have seen play: 10-6.
http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/christopher-apel/christopherapel
Official game box score.
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