Was It Worth It?

The picture to your left is of two guys named John Flansburg and John Linnell, the geniuses behind the awesome band known as They Might Be Giants. I have been a fan of TMBG since 1999, when my then boyfriend introduced their greatness to me.

Well, these guys came to Michigan Tech on the night of Saturday 1 December 2007... the same night that Michigan Tech played their second game of the series against Minnesota in Minneapolis.

When I found out that TMBG was coming to Tech, my first reaction was "they're still together?!" Next, I saw that it their show date fell on one of my favorite road trips - UMN. I decided that, although a tough call, I'm skipping the UMN trip and going to see this classic band. The day that TMBG tickets went on sale, I was the first one in line and got tickets for the center in the front row.

Well, we all know by now that... I didn't exactly go to the TMBG concert as planned. Once hockey season got here, I got back into hockey mode. Three days before the series began, I caved and of course decided to go to Minnesota, even though I knew I should not have.

The question remains... was it worth it?

Friday's game started out very frustratingly for the Tech faithful. Going down 2-o to the Gophers was rough... but with goals from John Schwarz, Deron Cousens (FINALLY! and with less than 5 minutes left in regulation to tie the game) and an overtime tally from Gagne ... It was definitely a turn around that night. Each of those three Huskies scored their first goals of the season. The feeling of coming back from being down two goals to come back and win during OT is pretty indescribable... especially for a Tech fan... especially on the road... and especially against Minnesota, no matter how much poorer their team may be this season. That win made us 4-1 in our last five games in the Mariucci against the Gophers. Not too bad, eh?

So with the feelings felt on Friday, it seemed to already be worth missing the concert. I would've been willing to bet that Tech would take at least one game. Many of you may have seen me talking about my hockey dreams lately. So far my hockey dreams for this season were 100% correct. During the offseason, I also had a dream that we split with Minnesota on the road. I was ready to bank on that one.

And as I dreamed, a split it was. I wasn't too upset after the loss. I was fully prepared for it.

So far, the trip has been worth it... but the suffering and paying of this trip will continue until at least Thursday of next week, so my mind could ( and probably will) change at anytime M-W of this weekend.

By the way, I heard that the TMBG concert was amazing... But of course it would be.

Expect THB's favorite guest writer to write up an entry on her experience at the Saturday MTU @ UMN game. Should be a good one.

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Now I'm going to start a new part of the THB that I should do after each game/series. This is called "Why We Won/Lost" ... a special segment where I will make up an excuse as to why we didn't get the W or what it was that enabled us to win.

We'll start out with the Friday night game vs Minnesota. Why we won: Michael-Lee Teslak made some key saves for us throughout the game. Also, although he had been playing strong all game long, UMN's goaltender, Kangas, completely missed a save that he should've easily had, costing the Gophers the game in overtime. Wasn't the prettiest goal, but Tech doesn't get many of those, so WE'LL TAKE IT!

Saturday 1 December 2007: Why we lost - getting our early goal taken back by minimal goaltender interference kind of knocked the wind out of my team. Combine that with how UMN scored soon after that to take first official blood and a poorly called "checking from behind" penalty called on Malcolm Gwilliam after he hit some guy in the side. Even though Tech was able to kill all five minutes of the penalty, it was quite an exhausting task, plus we were down a man. And lastly.... why we lost: the Gophers wanted the two points more than anything and they were fully ready to earn them.. and that they did.