Hockey is back!!!!
Post by Brittney Garcia
Whenever I give tours, students always ask why I like living in Raleigh. My answer is always the same: living here is like having the best of both worlds. I have college life here at NC State and 2 miles down the road, I have the city and everything it has to offer.
One of the most exciting things that Raleigh offers (besides our awesome NC State Wolfpack family) are the Carolina Hurricanes!! Due to a lockout, most games were cancelled during last year but now, it’s officially back and I’m extremely happy.
I guess that sounds like I go to games all the time but sadly, I don’t (although I wish I could). The best part of hockey season returning is that College Nights are back! Of course this meant that my friends and I had to go and…so we did.
Throughout the season, the Canes have certain nights dedicated for specific groups (Military, Family, Education, Students) and on these nights, tickets can be found at a cheaper price. For example, we saved about $60-70 by attending a game on College Night and buying the tickets with our school ID. And our seats were AMAZING.
Seriously. Take a look. We had a whole row to ourselves!
courtesy of the amazing Jessica Wackes
I guess you could call this “The Day I Fell In Love With Hockey”. I mean, I knew I would like it but the word “like” is simply an understatement. First, there’s the PNC arena. It is amazing how that place can turn from a basketball court into a hockey 
rink and then to an amphitheater for concerts. Besides that, I don’t know if people were just extremely happy that the lockout was over or if they just love the Canes, but the energy in that place was intense! There were two little kids behind me cheering so loudly that by the 2nd cheer, I already knew it well enough to yell with them.
We witnessed a hat trick (where a player makes 3 goals in one game) and our team won 6-3. One of the things I really liked about being at this game was the fact that even though we were winning (6 is a very high scoring game), the atmosphere was still energetic until the last second of the game. My favorite part of this experience, however, was sharing it with two people that I have come to adore. We made it on TV and screamed like little girls as we saw it happening. I wouldn’t change a thing about that day. Needless to say, coming to one of the first games after the lockout was an amazing experience!
