St. John's IceCaps @ Albany Devils 4/25/14

For the first time in my life, I attended a playoff hockey game. The Islanders haven't helped my cause, so I went to the Albany Devils game instead. They were hosting the St. John's IceCaps, AHL affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets, in game 1 of the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

The game itself was a very exciting. St. John's got on the board early off of an Albany turnover. The crowd at Times Union Center was large, as the upper deck was open to fans for the playoffs, unlike the regular season.

I had heard on twitter that New Jersey Devils President and General Manager, Hall of Famer Lou Lamoriello, was at the game. At the first intermission, I went looking for him. After walking around the upper level, I spotted an older man wearing a suit sitting in the front row. After a quick google image search confirmed that it was Lamoriello. I went up to him. He was sitting in the front row by himself, and I asked if he could sign something for me. Once he said yes, I handed him a puck and silver sharpie. He signed it nicely, writing out every letter of his name and adding the Hall of Fame inscription that I asked for. I shook his hand, thanked him, then took a blurry picture of him as I left the upper level. When I got back from the game, I scanned the puck and you can see both below.

After I got back to my seat, the Devils began their second period charge. They got a power play and got their chance to tie the game. See what happened below.


Unfortunately for Albany, the visitors would win the game on a long range goal in the final minute of regulation. The game would end with a 2-1 IceCaps final score. Here are some pictures I took after the go-ahead goal got past Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid.

After the game, a slight drizzle began to fall and I went to my usual spot out back. Surprisingly, there was no team bus for the IceCaps. I learned that all the players would be walking to their hotel which is just a few blocks away. I got a few autographs from players on the IceCaps walking to the hotel. I was mainly staying under an overpass to not get rained on. A few of the IceCaps said they liked my photo. Here is the photo I got signed with a list of everyone that signed it.

44-Julian Melchiori 1-Tyler Beskorowany 19-Kyle MacKinnon 30-Eric Comrie

32-Cody Lampl 27-Will O'Neill 6-Josh Morissey 7-Kris Fredheim

14-Eric O'Dell 34-JC Lipon 17-Jerome Samson 10-Andrew Gordon

25-Blair Riley 18-Ben Chariot

That's all I have for now. I hope Albany wins so they play another home game here at the Times Union Center. Thanks for reading. Good luck Graphing.