In the morning, we hung around the hotel, did some laundry and watched television. At 1.20pm we left for Garland, a little city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex to watch our friend Rhonda’s theatre class perform in the UIL Competition - it’s a tournament where schools compete against each other by performing one act of a play - each performing a different play. In this round robin, Rhonda’s school, Lakeview, were performing a scene from the play The Sins of Sor Juana by Karen Zacarías. The two other schools performed two different plays - one was 1984 by Orson Wells and the other was about the Holocaust but I can’t remember what it was called. Anyway after the plays, the awards were given out and the critique was given. The two best performances advanced to the next round, meaning they are to compete again on Friday in another round robin type of performance.

Lakeview was definitely the best performance in our opinion - not that we’re biased! But they did advance, thankfully, and they even won the award for best actor as well! Rhonda’s kids wanted to meet us, so they came over between school two and three’s performances to “hear our accents”. We ended up chatting to one of the parents for ages, but due to the Ducks game we had to leave at 5pm to get to Jesse’s house by 6pm.

We made it and got to the AAC by about 6.30pm. Sam and I headed for the WBAP booth to say goodbye to Ralph and Razor. Only Razor was there so we said our goodbyes to him, and that we’d come back to see Ralph. We got some dinner - chips and a burger - and then headed back to section 106 to see Ralph. We briefly said thanks and our goodbyes, and he said to come back for the Playoffs! Then he said seriously that he hopes we can make it back next year and he’ll save us a seat! I love those guys! We wished him luck with the call and headed off to find our seats.

We watched warm ups and took a few photos, but mainly just spent our time soaking up the atmosphere. Ian, our ticket rep, came down when they were announcing the team and they were skating out to start the game to tell us to meet him outside the Old No 7 and he’d take us down to the tunnel to watch the guys come out for the second. Sam said we’d already done it and yes, I smacked him and said to shut up! The guys in the row behind us joked with Ian that they were with us. Ian laughed, but said to us that it was okay, we could do it again. We thanked him and said we’d be there waiting for him.

I cried when the national anthem played. Seriously, it’s not my anthem, and it doesn’t normally bring me to tears to hear the Star Spangled Banner but there’s just something about the anthem being sung at the AAC - and the 18000 voices calling out “STARS!” twice when it appears in the song, that just moves you - at least as a Stars fan. And knowing that it was the last time I was going to be able to yell it out loud just made me really sad.

It was a tough and physical game. The Ducks are fighting to remain in the top 8 for the Western Conference, and they’re currently sitting in 6th position in the table with 86 points. They’re tied with Vancouver on 86 pts in 7th and only two points ahead of Edmonton on 84 pts. They are literally fighting to stay in the playoffs, as the Northwest and Pacific divisions are so close. The first ended scoreless, and we went down to watch the guys come out with Ian, Tatjana and Jen I think her name was, who works for the Stars. We were given a lecture - “Don’t talk to the players unless they talk to you, and don’t touch them. No photos.” Boy. Like we’d want to do any of that anyway! You’d be messing with their mojo and you don’t want any part of that! The guys came out, and only Robidas smiled when he saw us - though I think it was more for Tatjana than us as she had come from Germany just to see him play and he appreciated that. They had had some good conversations when they’d met up in the autograph lines at Frisco.

The guys were definitely “in the zone” when they came out though, which was great to see. As usual, Jason Arnott, Mike Modano and Sergei Zubov were the last three in that order. Mike said something to Jason as they walked out but all of them ignored us. I was pretty happy about that - it meant that we weren’t distracting for them. We thanked Ian and Jen, and then headed back up to our seats to enjoy the rest of our final game.

Zubie scored first, 7.37 into the second on a wonderful wrist shot if I recall correctly, assisted by Mike Modano and Jason Arnott. Anaheim hit back less than a minute later, but we weren’t done yet. 17.05 into the second, Niko Kapanen got a sweet tip on a slapshot from Antti Miettinen, passed to him by Mike Modano. The Stars were up 2-1 at the end of the second. I was ecstatic as Mike had had an assist on both Stars goals.

When the third started, so did my tears. It was hitting me that this was the last game - the last time I’d hear Pantera play as the boys came out onto the ice. The last time I’d hear JeffK announce another Stars Powerplay! The last time I’d hear Bill Ollerman announce “Here are your…Dallas… STARS!” and the last time I’d hear Rock N Roll II play after a goal, with the entire crowd punching the air and screaming out “HEY!” at the appropriate time. There’d be no more cheering for a guy going to the box on the opposition, or booing the refs for a bad call. No more chanting “MARTY!” on a great save, or just sitting in the arena and soaking up the atmosphere. There’s no more bugging Ralph (for which I’m sure he’ll be grateful!) or Rob … No more chilli fries or hotdogs. There’s no more ringing ears from pucks smashing the glass, or pucks flying into the crowd. There would be no more fights, no more checks, and no more live Stars hockey.

By the time the game, and all the fights in the third, were over, I had tears streaming down my face. We waited for the arena to empty and then walked down to the glass and picked up a few of the programs that had been left behind. Sam took a few more photos of the empty arena, and then of me standing there. The usher that was walking up the stairs looked at me a little funny so we explained that this was our last game and we were flying back to Australia on Saturday and we didn’t know if we’d ever come back again. I said I knew I was being silly but I couldn’t help it. I love my Stars and I’m going to miss them so much.

But I’ve had the time of my life - and all good things must come to an end.

~ Wendy