It was a night I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.
The weekend leading up to the spring break, I took a little trip to New York City. My friend, Aneta Tejralova, who plays in the Professional Women’s Hockey League for the Seattle Torrent and is also the captain of the Czech Women National hockey team, invited me to her game against the New York Sirens.
What I didn’t know then was that it was going to be the first ever professional women’s hockey game held in Madison Square Garden. As soon as the game started, I realized I was witnessing something special.
Joe Vyvial takes a photo of the puck from Aneta Tejralova
I’ve been to more than 10 NHL hockey games and this was the loudest game I’ve been to, by far. I didn’t know what to expect from the game because I haven’t watched much women’s hockey, only a few games at the Olympics but never a PWHL game.
I was pleasantly surprised. It was quick, super-skilled, and the women were going at it! The atmosphere was electric and the sold-out crowd of 18,006 fans gave me goosebumps throughout the whole game.
It was a history in the making.
It was great to see my friend play and Denisa Krizova, who’s on the New York team and is also one of our country’s top hockey players. But who I was the most excited to see play, was the Seattle Torrent captain, Hilary Knight, who led the U.S. Women National Hockey team to an Olympic gold as a captain in Milano and has been pretty much the face of women’s hockey the past decade or more.
Madison Square Garden is packed to the brim for the PWHL
The game went into the shootouts, where the New York Sirens came out stronger with a 2-1 win, and the whole arena went crazy. Everyone got on their feet and started singing Frank Sinatra’s “New York New York” and that might have been my favorite moment of the game.
I tried to soak it all in and enjoy every second of it. Such a great New York experience I remember only dreaming about witnessing when I was a little kid.
After the game I met up with my friend and she brought me a game puck, which was great. But what was even better, she had me to go out with her and the team to bars. I got to meet everyone and later that night we also met up with the New York team and spent most of the night together!
It was great, felt surreal, and truly a night to remember for the rest of my life.
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