This is my (Cheezhead's) first blog for Random Blogging. It's a quickie, but I'm blogging on the Hershey Bears AHL hockey game I went to.

If you're not into hockey, you may know of the NHL, but you might not know there's "minor league" hockey. Well Hershey (the place, not the candy you just ate with the wrapper lying on your keyboard) does have a team: the Hershey Bears. 2 years ago they won the Calder Cup and went to the final last year only to lose. This year they're still doing good. 2 nights ago, they lost to the Manitoba Moose 5-0. Last night I went to see them play the Moose in Hershey at the pretty nice Giant Center.

After a quick ride on the Chocolate Tour and a candy bar after we got off :-), I went in the Giant Center. There was a cool laser light show, the Bears (with a ferocious Bear on the logo and a cuddily bear as a mascot) came out on the ice, Oh Canada was sung, and then the National Anthem. Now the faceoff.

The clock said 19:14, not even a minute in, and there was a fight. Louis Robataille, who has more Penalty Minutes in the league than anyone by about an hour, got in a fight with a Moose, and after a few seconds they both went down. It was great. The fans were going wild. Oh yeah, those fans are great. They're loyal and you can always hear them, especially when almost 10,000 showed up.

The first period went by with no scoring. A few penalties later, and the Moose went up 1-0. A minute or two later, they added another goal. Things were looking bad when the Bears got back in it with under a minute in the 2nd, scoring. The fans start screaming "B-E-A-R-S, BEARS, BEARS, BEARS" 3 times, getting faster each time and then letting out a "WOOOOOO!".

The 3rd had some action. With kids blowing on the Bear horns throughout the game, the Bears had their shots. One trip they had about 5 shots, but Manitoba's goalie had some great saves. Then- "YEAHHHHHHHH"....a Bear layed a huge open ice hit on a Moose, it was amazing. It was the hit of the game, and right after it another fight started. Both players punched at each other, and as they were going down, the Bears player fell on top of the Moose, throwing him into the ice.

That was the end of the cheering for Hershey. They missed chances and got scored on an empty net. Final score, 3-1 Moose. But the game was great.

So how was that?