Our First Hockey Game

Friday nights have usually been pretty uneventful since I’ve been in Villingen. We have either had a game on Saturday, driven to a tourney or the most dreaded....Saturday morning practice. Typically a Friday night is dinner at Franco’s (restaurant) and a couple of drinks with the girls from the team and then home to bed. However last Friday was a different story.

It was the first time we had the club car and we were determined to make full use of it! During our German class we met 2 girls who have boyfriends on the Schwenningen Wild Wings hockey team, the local pro team that plays in the second division aka second bundesliga. We got to talking about the night’s game and they invited us to come along! Being a HUGE hockey fan there was no way I could say no. My roommates weren’t as thrilled as I was but they still agreed to come along. So after picking up the club car we embarked on our little drive to Schwenningen. It should have been no big deal to get there considering that Schwenningen is only 5 kilometres away and we had the trusty directions from Google Maps. But after a few missed exits, no visible street signs in the dark, and stopping at a gas station for directions we finally made it to the game, 15 minutes late.

Walking into the arena was the coolest thing ever. Just as we entered the Wild Wings scored the first goal of the game and the crowd erupted into a frenzy with yelling, whistling and drums being banged, a very nice welcome to the game. The game itself was really good as the Wild Wings won 2-1 in overtime, their first home win of the season. A typically hockey game I would say, lots of hitting, cycling and plenty of scrambles in front of the net, just no goals.

The arena itself was open to the outside on two sides, it was about 5 degrees out that night, and it felt like a true pond hockey game. The girls warned us in advance that it would be cold because they said that the arena was being renovated but I didn’t think that the renovations would involve actually leaving two of the sides exposed to the outside. Only in Germany.......

Possibly the best part of the game were the fans!! They were crazy, insane, obnoxious; passionate....you get the idea. Our seats were located directly beside the opposing team’s fans; they even tried to start a fight with some of the people behind us. They got into a yelling match and they tried to come into our section but because we were in a private section they weren’t allowed up, but nevertheless it was still amusing. I can’t believe how passionate the fans are about the game.

They stand the entire game, have a cheer master to lead them in chorus, drink a ton of Furstenberg beer (the team sponsor), wave the team’s banners and whistle at their team instead of booing. The atmosphere was electrifying and I can’t wait to go to the next game......