IceMen Offer Komets a Cold Welcome

I got to cover history on Sunday night when the IceMen played the first professional sporting event at the new Ford Center in Downtown Evansville.  I’ve covered the arena’s construction a couple times throughout the year I’ve been here and when I found out I wouldn’t be staying on here past December, it was a bit of a blow knowing I wouldn’t get to enjoy the new stadium much.  I did get to cover the IceMen’s home opener though, and I took advantage of the new arena’s amenities, mounting a camera on the catwalk to shoot one of the goals through the game.

The game was delayed by 40 minutes because one of the set-up crew members at the arena slipped on the ice and was knocked unconscious.  The Zamboni also had to be brought out to run the ice again after the man who fell left a pool of blood where he hit his head.  I didn’t see any of this, but the words “pool of blood” were used to describe it to me, and I did arrive as he was loaded onto an ambulance strapped down to the stretcher.

This all amounted to a tighter shooting window for me, with our deadlines at 9pm.  I got some decent stills of the game action from the ice level and kept triggering the remote hoping I was getting good action on the opposite end… Unfortunately the pocket wizard I was using on the body was toasted and only got a few frames, one of which turned out to be the game winning goal when the IceMen went ahead 2-1 in the second period.

After flipping the wizards around and getting a working system, though, I was able to get great action from the position and get them in the gallery online.  Next game, I’ll be ready.

IceMen Beat Komets in Ford Center Debut

Ft. Wayne center Leo Thomas (44) takes a stick to the face from Evansville left wing Josh Beaulieu (20) after taking a shot that glanced off of Evansville goaltender Pier-Olivier Pelletier and past the goal in the third period of Evansville's 3-1 win over Ft. Wayne on Saturday night, November 5, 2011 in their first game at the Ford Center.