Nope, I did not see the match yesterday. I stayed at University quite long and finally felt so hungry and tired, that I decided to return home instead of going to a Pub. When I was walking home the match was already on. I've never seen the busy Whyte Avenue so utterly empty. Obviously everybody was already inside the Pubs or their houses. It was weird. Have you seen the film "28 Days later"? Right in the beginning, when the guy awakes from coma, walks through London's empty streets and everything is dead silent. That was how it felt. Spooky. I mean, actually it wasn't that silent because when passing by houses I could hear people shouting things like "Come on!" But in fact this still strengthened the strange atmosphere: Knowing that the whole world (or at least all Edmonton, but for the next six months this is pretty much my world) was doing the same thing, was focused on these crucial events, while I was just walking home in order to have dinner and go to bed, made me feel as if I was living in my own, totally separate, world..

I suppose today morning I was pretty much the only person in this City who didn't know the outcome of the match (I haven't bought a radio yet). Fortunately Sylwia, the Institute's "Executive Assistant" informed me about the result, or rather shared her tragedy with me: In the first Part the Oilers had a 3:0 lead, but then the Hurricanes came back and turned the match to 4:3. In the third and last Part it was 4:4 until the decisive events: The Oilers' goaltender was seriously injured and will be missing all the following matches, which is a devastating blow because he was the Oilers' nominee for the Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs, while the substitutes are young and inexperienced. And exactly this missing experience led - only about 30 seconds before the end of regulation time - to the 5:4 game-winning goal for Hurricanes. The Oilers had fantastic chances but the Hurricanes' goaltender all saved them and Carolina won the match. (For those of you who are even less familiar with Ice hockey than I am: The Stanley Cup final is decided in Best of Seven modus which means the first of the two teams winning 4 matches will be champion. So yesterday was a bitter defeat but it's only 0:1...)

Well, it seems I've already caught the virus.. Tomorrow I've got the next opportunity to become part of this Ice hockey crazy world..