Over the weekend I had the pleasure to embark on a “Guy’s Weekend” as I traveled to Madison, Wisconsin to attend the Michigan-Wisconsin hockey game dubbed the Culver’s Camp Randall Classic.
This was my view from my seat at Camp Randall. We were originally located near the giant tunnel on the right in the first row of people but we moved to enjoy a better view.
I had a great time experiencing a Big Ten college town, with all the features that come with it such as bars, restaurants, and people supporting their team.
My friends and I had no problems in terms of weather on the drive there. It snowed a little while passing through Chicago but nothing too severe. We arrived in Madison around 8:00. After some relaxing and getting a few necessary party supplies, we ventured out in our Michigan jerseys and sweatshirts as we went to check out the nightlife that Madison had to offer.
We encountered some playful heckling from the Wisconsin fans but we did take over the second floor of a bar with a rendition of Hail to the Victors with other pockets of Michigan fans. I also had the pleasure of hanging out with an alumni of my college (Ferris State) and saw three other Bulldog alumni that live in Madison. So my night went pretty good and made me more excited to attend the game Saturday afternoon.
When game day arrived Saturday, we decided to bar crawl around the State Street bars prior to the game. We eventually settled at State Street Brats, which is one of the best college-town sports bars in America from what I’ve heard and the plaques on the wall said. The food there was very good, as well as some of the local Wisconsin brews they had on tap.
The action at Camp Randall began with the Wisconsin women’s team taking on Bemidji State. The Badgers lit the lamp a lot as they won 6-1. I heard the goal horn several times as I was walking outside Camp Randall taking pictures and walking around.
Then, just as sunset occured, 55,000 fans packed themselves onto the lower bowl of Camp Randall, the men’s game was played. Before the game, there was a flyover of fighter jets. It was one of the first times I got to experience a flyover in person. It was pretty awesome!
My friends and I had tickets in Section A, row 21. If you look at the photo above, row 21 was among the first rows of people you see that’s closest to the ice. We were near the Zamboni entrance, by where Michigan entered the ice. We didn’t have that good of a view as we could only see from the waist-up of Michigan goalie Bryan Hogan. We couldn’t even see the first Wisconsin goal scored by Jordy Murray at the 3:04 mark of the first period.
During the first TV-timeout, we decided to “seek higher ground” to the place that wasn’t full: by the scoreboard on the other side of the stadium. The view was amazing, with the crowd in front of me and the Fieldhouse in the background.
The coolest part of the game was at the first stoppage of the third period when House of Pain’s “Jump Around” played. I was just about to take a picture on my phone when it blared through the stadium. I switched to video and shot some video footage. It’s a tradition that the crowd does at Badger football games. It looks good, so look for it on the Hockey World Blog page on YouTube.
Unfortunately the Wolverines couldn’t hold on to the lead as Detroit Red Wings prospect Brendan Smith scored two copy-cat power play goals late in the game. Both goals came in the same fashion when Michael Davies fired a pass from the left side to Smith, a left-handed shooter fires a shot from the point past Hogan. The first goal came at 14:28 while the game-winner came with 1:22 left in the game.
Overall, it was a great atmosphere and a great game to attend. I’m looking forward to attending the Frozen Four in Detroit this April as well as attending The Big Chill: a game featuring Michigan State and Michigan in December at Michigan Stadium.
