Good evening and welcome to the Hangar for tonight’s match, the first of two left that will decide the Premier Cup Champions. Early ticket indications seem to show this will be the gate of the season!
A warm welcome tonight to the Jets fans and the no doubt sizable contingent of travelling Flames fans.
I remember first getting into ice hockey a few months after starting work at the rink. I started in May which was out of season but come the season I saw ice hockey for the first time. Face-off in those days was 5.45, the Saturday night skating session was 7.45pm and as you can imagine quite often the session started late as the hockey was still being played. Here was a sport that I knew nothing of, with rules I didn’t know or understand but it caught my attention. I found myself arriving at the rink earlier every week to watch the game before work. I got involved and consequently started learning the rules and the game became even more intriguing as with knowledge of the rules came an appreciation of tactics and systems. I’ve seen the Jets win leagues and cups then heading into a leaner spell and back out again when Steve Moria and Nicky Chinn led the team to the 2008 Play-offs.
The Jets have enjoyed success of recent with the 2008, 2010 and 2012 play-offs and the 2011 Premier Cup as well. Nights like tonight are special, they are the highlights of the season. Everyone turns up week in, week out, some results are positive, some are negative, some are flat out frustrating but then nights like tonight come along, big game nights, and it’s all excitement, atmosphere and action. Everyone knows that over the course of the next two legs the competition will be decided and the winners presented with their prize so the importance of every shift is massive.
It’s not been easy getting this far! The tension of a penalty shoot-out in the semi-final saw heartache for the Bison but joy for the Jets as they made their way to the final. We then had just over a week’s wait while the other semi-final was concluded to find out our opponents and here we are tonight ready to go into battle against the Flames.
I’m sure tonight will be loud all night long. Both sets of fans will want to be the extra man for their team tonight and with this being our home game we only get one chance to make use of the home advantage before the series closes in their place next week so I look forward to hearing the Jets fans clapping, cheering, singing and loud all night long.
Enjoy tonight’s game
My team, your team, OUR TEAM
Mark
