Whale Bowl 2011 is in the books and by most accounts, it was a great success. Despite frigid temperatures, fans tailgated in the parking lot and cheered from the stands. Hopefully fans continue to show their support for Hartford hockey and prove once and for all to the NHL that Hartford is hockey country.
Check out these highlights from Whale Bowl:
- Whalers Fans Unite, Call Out Gary Bettman at Whale Bowl 2011 As Hartford Hockey Fans’ Love for Whale Still Burns (Paul Paquette, NESN)
- Highlights, Post-Game Interviews And More From Whale Bowl Legends Game (courant.com)
- Whale Bowl Highlights (ctwhale.com)
A few friends and I drove up from New York City for the Whale Bowl. The closest affiliation any of us had to the participating teams – NONE – is that I went to Providence College and had a bunch of art history classes with B’s back-up Nolan Schaefer. He’s a cool guy, and his old school mask was AWESOME.
We all just went for love of the game.
I’ve been to each of the last two Winter Classics and the Whale Bowl was more fun than either of them. I don’t know, maybe it was the minor league vibe of thinking I could get away with running rampant across a mostly-empty stadium. Whatever, it was SUPREME.
I wasn’t even drinking. All-around great time. It was ice cold, but even that turned into an instantly classic memory, as we huddled around inside the men’s room between periods, looking like a quartet of lost GI Joes in our camo ski masks and gear we bought at Cabela’s for the sole purpose of not freezing to death.
And the game itself was pretty great from a dramatic perspective: 2-0 CT; 3-2 PRV; 4-3 CT: 4-4, then the shootout.
I’m hoping there’s an annual Whale Bowl, because we’ll be on I-95 every year to make it.