One of my favorite hockey teams wrote history last night. And not just because they've reached the playoffs for the first time since 21 years, which alone was reason enough for this poster. I had to buy one and still have to figure out where I should put it in my tiny apartement.



The atmosphere was so intense at the start of the game, that I was already really happy to part of it.

This season brought some new rules, like pre-playoffs for the teams 6-10 in the standings, and the abolition of shootouts during the playoffs. Until this year, when a playoff game ended in a tie after the regular 60 minutes, there was a 20 minutes sudden-death overtime, followed by a shootout. And only in thoses games which could resolve a playoff series, the overtime continued (with intermission of course) until one team finally scored.

The longest game in the history of the German premiere hockey league took place just a couple of days ago during the pre-playoffs between Hannover and Düsseldorf and last 91:44 minutes. That's the regular 60 + the first 20 minute overtime + 12 minutes in the second overtime.

Last night my team finally scored at minute 117:45! That's 118 minutes! Two hours! Or in other words: two games in a row!

THEY PLAYED TWO GAMES IN A ROW!

I'm still dumbstruck and I can't express what that felt like last night. I probably couldn't even express it in German. It was the total madness. And I was frozen to death, because they play in the smallest, probably oldest, most traditional venue of the league. It feels like icehockey even for the audience and we sat close to the open doors, which had to stay open for the TV equipment of the pay-TV channel broadcasting this game. It's soooo cool this one was the game they broadcasted, because they just broadcast one game on every matchday. Bro#3 recorded it, but of course he set the timer to end at 11.30 pm, which usually is more than enough, as a hockey game usually ends around 10.00 pm. So even with the one overtime we could expect, it would have been sufficient. Thank God he was able to record the rerun later that night, as he just told me on the phone. I have to watch part of it this afternoon. The game (regular, overtime and all intermissions) last almost five hours. After midnight we started singing "We're staying here till morning light" And we would have.

What the players went through can't be appreciated enough. Hockey is an exhausting sport and they already fought so hard during the regular 60 minutes. And I was there to be a part of it! I lived history. I still have to wrap my mind around it. And my mind was supposed to do some studying today, but I don't know if it's up to it :-)