In what had to have been one of the most exciting NHL games I have ever attended, the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Vancouver Canucks 7-5 in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. The Blackhawks advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 1995.

This was the third NHL series clinching game I have attended. The other two came on May 19, 1995 as the Blackhawks defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 and May 7, 2007 as the Detroit Red Wings defeated the San Jose Sharks in Game 6

Pre Game Dining
Before the game, I dined with some colleagues at Petterino’s located at 150 N. Dearborn St. Petterino’s is a reasonably priced restaurant if you are looking to eat in downtown Chicago rather than by the United Center.

Obtaining Tickets
I was attending the game with Blackhawks Jimmy Jr. (son of Blackhawks Jim) and needed to find tickets for the two of us. Earlier in the day, I noticed an eBay auction for two SRO tickets for $55 each. I thought about purchasing those tickets but noticed that tickets on StubHub had been declining in price. Rather than buy the eBay tickets I decided to wait to see if the market would fall further. It did not and I ended up buying two SRO tickets from StubHub for just under $70 each (10 minutes after I made the purchase tickets were $30 more expensive).

I hardly ever buy tickets from StubHub because the difference in price the buyer receives and the seller pays is much greater than eBay, craigslist.org or walking around the arena (as I usually do). However, I decided to make the purchase for several reasons Monday afternoon:

1) The game had a lot of hype and I was fearful there would not be a secondary market outside the United Center as all ticket transactions would take place before people showed up to the arena.
2) It is nearly impossible to get a good deal on craigslist.org with a high demand game as you may not hear back from the “lister” or the price you offered is too low compared to someone else.
3) Tickets on eBay were more expensive than StubHub (even with StubHub’s fees) and I was not near a printer. Most eBay transactions are for electronic tickets which I would need to print out at home or in the office.

For those three reasons, I figured the safest purchase was through StubHub and it appeared as though I was right. When Blackhawks Jimmy Jr. and I arrived at the United Center, I did not see any fans (or scalpers) with extra tickets. Everyone (around 50 to 100 people) was asking for tickets. One scalper did have tickets in section 323, row 16 but wanted $150 each for them. Twice as much as I had paid for SRO tickets.

Standing Room Only at the United Center
As I wrote after Game 3 of the series, most people are intimidated by buying Standing Room Only seats. First, they think they will have to stand for the entire game. And second, as is the case with the United Center, the team may sell too many SRO tickets for the standing room space available. Thus, it can be difficult to see the ice during a playoff game.

Since we arrived about 45 minutes early for the game, I did check out the standing room area to see if we could find a spot where we could stand but still see the ice. We were the second row back. We could see the ice but may have some obstructions if people moved around too much. Thus, I chose to find seats and we could easily since it was 40 minutes before the game.

As the Blackhawks started their pre game festivities 10 minutes before the game, people started to arrive (most Blackhawks fans arrive before the national anthem). We were kicked out of our seats twice and ended up standing next to “sparkler guy” in this picture (I am in the blue shirt towards the right of the picture clapping and Blackhawks Jimmy Jr. is to my left in the Blackhawks jersey – next to the fan with the American flag).

Just after the national anthem ended we sat in row 4 of that same section and were able to sit in the seats for the entire game (I guess a guy from Cincinnati was supposed to drive in for the game but did not end up coming).

The Game
Patrick Kane scored the first hat trick of his career (and the first for the Blackhawks in a playoff game since Gary Suter on April 24, 1994). The United Center had not been this loud since Michael Jordan’s second three-peat run, as the Canucks and Blackhawks traded goals the entire game.

In the first period, the Canucks scored first to take a 1-0 lead, but the Blackhawks matched exactly two minutes later to tie the score 1-1.

In the second period, the Blackhawks took a 3-1 lead, but the Canucks managed to score two goals of their own before the period was over to tie the game 3-3.

In the third period, the Canucks took a 4-3 lead, but the Blackhawks matched about two minutes later. The Canucks then took a 5-4 lead and the crowd thought the series was heading back to Vancouver for Game 7. However, Kane was able to sneak one by Roberto Luongo to tie the game at 5-5 and the Blackhawks scored two more goals to win the game 7-5.

This was the fourth NHL game I have attended with 12 or more goals scored. The other three were:
1) November 12, 1998: Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Blackhawks 10-3.
2) March 30, 2002: San Jose Sharks defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 10-2.
3) January 19, 2006: Los Angeles Kings defeated the Atlanta Thrashers 8-6.