Run to the Sun - Day 6

For the first time in our trip, we had no idea what this day held in store for us. Once again Sam and I awake at the crack of 10am, and head towards Micky D's for b-fast. However, when we get back, we have no plans. Laurie was home and clued us in on some ideas, such as a laser tag place. In the end, I took another look at the Frozen Four tickets, and they had come down to $50 each...so I took 'em.

Now the Frozen Four is the Final Four for NCAA men's hockey. Some genius thought it would be great to have Tampa host an event where the main participants all reside north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Now for the Super Bowl that works...but not so much with college hockey. For 2012, the four teams competing are Union College in NY, Boston College, Ferris St. from MI, and Minnesota. Union and Ferris are quite small, with Union only having an enrollment of just over 2,200. Compare that to Minnesota's hefty 50K student body, and you can understand the charm of this event. This would NEVER happen in college basketball.

So we set out once again for the Tampa Bay Times Forum, where we were on Monday night. Now the place is all decked out in Frozen Four stuff, and Sam being impatient wanted to get in right away. We did - 70 minutes before the first game. LOTS of time on our hands. To my dismay the seats we got were right under the bands...and when they played...WOW! So we moved to a spot near center ice, and caught both games there. Like I said, smart to host this in Tampa - the place was barely 3/4 full. Teams like Ferris and Union don't travel well...if at all.

Sam as usual made friends with those sitting by us, and we saw Ferris St. beat Union in the first game. Pretty sloppy - and definitely not the NHL. Still was entertaining, and nice to see a school never winning having a chance at a title. The second game turned into a rout. Boston College is the number one team in the country - and for a good reason. They good! Although Minnesota was the aggressor - BC was the finisher. We left the Forum when the score was 4-0, and it was 6-1 BC when we finally left downtown. Oy.

That was basically it. Still no real plans for tomorrow afternoon...