Dallas Year’s trip to Stars’ Game
Last Wednesday, 30 students attended the Dallas Stars hockey game for free! The event was coordinated by Emily Boerner, senior psychology major and Dallas Year Intern for CAB.
The event was a rowdy themed ‘Country Western Night’ at American Airlines Stadium with the crowd absolutely decked out in their teams jerseys for both the Stars and the Krackens. There were also a number of sportfans rocking team USA jerseys after the recent win of both the men and women’s USA team at the Olympics!
During the break after the first period, several students gave their opinions on the game. Boerner said, “I’ve been looking at sports events for this year. I’ve done a Rangers game, and then the Dallas Stars game is my semester’s event. I wanted to go out and have a great time in Dallas. My favorite part about this game so far is all the action and the energy, especially when Team USA wins post Olympics. So really excited to be here, looking forward to a good win.”
The game was full of exciting moments, and several fights broke out on the ice, shots so intense that one player’s blade broke off his skate from the impact of the puck. Ultimately, the Stars defeated the Kraken 4-1 and extended their winning streak to seven consecutive games!
What the Kraken ultimately lacked was offense; their number of shots at the goal was nearly half the number of attempts as the Stars. Senior history major Ben Larson said, “The Kraken are hitting muffins, but the Stars are hitting shots that would make their mothers cry.” That just about sums it up.
Several UD students who attended the game are longtime fans of hockey, such as a roommate trio of seniors: Emily Jorgensen, Susie Zischkau and Mary Claire Thomas, who said, “We all just love watching hockey together, we put a game on in our apartment sometimes as well, because we’ve each got our own home teams. We’re really enjoying embracing the USA win tonight.”
The recent Olympics was a theme of the night, not just because of the USA win, but also because of how many of those on the ice had represented their country. Jake Oettinger played for team USA as their Goaltender. Four Star’s players — Miro Heiskanen, Mikko Rantanen, Esa Lindell and Roope Hintz all represented their home country of Finland in the Olympics. Thomas Harley played for Team Canada as a defenseman, and Radek Faksa went to the Games with his home country of Czechia.
But the number of local Olympians continues to grow. Hannah Bilka, a native of Coppell, Texas, won a gold medal with the U.S. Women’s Ice Hockey Team, and Amber Glenn, a native of Plano, Texas, placed in the top five in the women’s individual figure skating.
For many UD students, such as myself, it was their first NHL game. Thomas McHugh, a freshman economics major said, “The first goal of the game was pretty sick. After the Stars scored, the energy got really hype. This is my first NHL hockey game. I’m from San Antonio, and we used to have a hockey team, the San Antonio Rampage. I went to that as a kid, but this is the first time I’ve seen hockey in a long time.”
As the game was coming down to the final minutes one last quote from senior English major, Ava Van Schaick said, “I’m so glad there was a FIGHT!”