So last night at the game, Ralph Strangis said to find him at practice and he’d see if he could set us up to see Mike Modano. I was looking around for Ralph most of the morning but we couldn’t see him. Practice started and we went in to watch it. We got some great photos, taken by Sam, and Amber and I went to the end of the rink to watch the guys practice.

After a while, and talking to a few people around the edge of the rink, I saw Ralph come out of the Stars locker room and I waved at him. He nodded and walked over, calling out “Hey, it’s the Aussies!” and pronouncing the S like an S… I grinned and said, “Auzzie mate, Auzzie.” And he laughed and said, “Nah, I like it as Aussie.” I replied, “Okay, but only you’re allowed to say it that way!”

He told me he’d been trying to hook us up with Mike, but he wasn’t sure if they’d be able to do it because Mike had a commercial to shoot today and he was a little cranky about a few things Ralph asked him to sign for something - I think a celebrity Auction. Anyway Ralph called Rob, the Senior Director Hockey Communications for the Dallas Stars, over. We said to Ralph, “He’d be called ‘Bluey’ back home because he has red hair!” so now Rob has been christened ‘Bluey’. Anyway Rob was great to us. He said it wouldn’t be a problem to hook us up with Mike and he’d be fine about it all. We chatted away and then he said he’d come and get us when they were ready to film the commercial and we could meet Mike afterwards.

It didn’t take too long before Rob called us over and we followed him down a corridor through the stands in the rink area. Sam forgot the camera so he ran back and got it. While he was gone, Mike - flanked by some other guys from the production company - walked right past me. I couldnt’ stop smiling - or shaking. Anyway Sam came back and we waited with Rob in the hallway - chatting about how we became hockey fans and everything. I think Rob could see I was shaking because he said, “Now you know he’s a regular guy, right? He puts his pants on the same way as everyone else - one leg at a time.”

I grinned and said, “I know! I’m fine.” And I was. I was shaking because I was partly cold. Have I mentioned it’s FREEZING in Dallas right now? Anyway Mike was done pretty quick with the commercial - he must have got it right the first or second time, and I think it meant he was done for the day so when he came out, he seemed pretty happy.

Anyway Rob said, “Mike, this is Wendy and Sam. They’re the two Australian fans who have come to see the Stars.” And Mike shook my hand with a grin and said it was nice to meet us, and then said, “Really? All the way from Australia?” And I nodded and said “Yeah.” We went on to explain we don’t get the games on tv over there, we get them mailed to us on DVD and that we listen to Ralph and Razor on WBAP and NHL radio, and I said, “And you guys play when I’m at work, so I call Sam on my lunch break and he puts the phone by the speaker so I can listen to the call of the game!”

Mike was a little surprised by that but he laughed too. I liked making him laugh. He seemed to be enthralled talking to us, which was great. Rob said “She’s been a fan for 13 years.”
Mike asked, “Really? How’d you get into the Stars?”
I blushed and said, “Uh, actually it was all because of you.”
He, of course, was like, “Uh, what?”

And Rob said, “She saw The Mighty Ducks.” Mike…god bless him, he blushed so bad and looked at the ground and shook his head with a grin, saying “Oh no!” I laughed and grabbed his arm lightly. He looked down at me - because he towers over me (I’m 5″6, he’s 6″3 in bare feet!).
I said, “No, it wasn’t like that!” And Sam went on to explain that I saw him playing first, not the talking part.

I clarified and said, “Wait… the thing was… the first part I saw was the NHL part where you were flying up the ice, with your jersey billowing in the wind scorin’ that goal and I was like, ‘… Wow, who’s that? #9? That’s it I’m gone.’ And since 9 is my number… I’ve been hooked ever since. I had to rewind it to see the rest of it!”

He nodded and said, “Oh, that’s so nice.” He asked how long we were here for and I said until April 1st and he asked where we were staying and I said studio 6 on I35 and Northwest Hwy. He nodded and then I said, “Yeah, we know it’s the “cultural part” of Dallas!” and he laughed so I think he knows the area is full of strip joints! Yes, we picked the prime part of Dallas to stay!

Anyway he happily signed my jersey that I was wearing, and then I asked him to sign my Jokinen jersey that I’m getting the whole team to sign. I fumbled with the pen because I got him to sign in silver on the 6 and said “Sorry, I’m being a pain in the butt.” He was so sweet, and said, “No, no, it’s okay!”

After he signed it, I said, “We actually have something for you.”
He looked really surprised and said “Really? Oh okay.”
I dug around in the bag and got out his silver keyring and as I gave it to him, I said, “Everyone has to have an Australian keyring.” He grinned, I think he liked it a lot because Sam took a photo of Mike looking at the keyring with a wonderful smile on his face. He said thank you, which was nice and then I said, “And we also have this… this is… in Australia, our city has had a hockey team in the national league since last year. SO… we got you one of their jerseys!”

I handed it to him, and he looked at it and his grin was so big. I think he really liked it, but it could have just been Mike being polite. I added, “And it’s got your name and number on the back.”

He turned it around and he was like “Oh wow! This is so great! Thank you so much!” We said he was welcome, and he posed for a photo with me holding up his jersey. He put his arm around my shoulders, and I put my arm around his waist - he’s so small width wise - I mean, he’s tall, and he’s solid, but wow, he’s tiny. He was very, very sweet to us and seriously he was just so much more than I ever expected. He’s a wonderful man, and though I doubt he’ll ever see this site, I just want to say thank you Mike for being a gentleman, a good sport and a wonderful role model. I didn’t get to say all that I wanted to, but that’s okay. I was able to spend a few minutes with you and I know how busy you are, so to generously give a few minutes of your time to someone who has travelled such a long way to see you play just meant the world to me.

I said to him, “Good assist last night by the way,” and he smiled and said, “Well, thank you very much.” I added, “It was a shame you guys didn’t win on Monday night,” and he was like, “Um, yeah, well uh… you know,” and I continued on, “But you know what? It was still the best game of hockey we’ve ever seen!” He laughed. I also said thank you for beating the Kings (he laughed), and that we were in the air flying from LA to Dallas at the time of when they were playing, and Sam told him I was cheering them on in the plane, which of course made me blush but Mike laughed and said something but I can’t remember what it was.

Mike also said that he hoped we had a great trip and that he might see us again and we said thanks and he left. I’ve been on cloud nine ever since. Rob didn’t have any business cards on him at the time after Mike left so he said to wait and he’d run and get one since we gave him one of our on the cheap ones that we made this morning - got some business cards and a rubber stamp that you can change the words on - worked out pretty well. When Rob came back, he said that Mike really enjoyed talking to us. I was a little skeptical but he said that Mike loved the jersey, that when he was walking back to the locker room, he was holding it up and saying, “Wow, this is amazing! This is great!” So I’m really glad he liked it. It was something I wanted to give him, just for no other reason than the Stars have hosted us, and it’s Australian custom to give your hosts a gift of some sort to say thank you.

I have a wonderful memory of my sporting hero that I will always treasure for the rest of my life - and to everyone on hockeypulse… watch out. I’m a bigger Modano homer than I was before now that I’ve met him!

~ Wendy

Day Seven was the Stars Vs Wild game. We got up a little late and drove up to Addison to the Dunn Bros Coffee and bored Amber for two hours while we jumped online and did our email and stuff. Then we dropped into Wal-Mart on the way back to the hotel to have lunch and get ready for the game. I went to Salon Amber (Amber did my hair and makeup for me) and then we headed off to pick up Rhonda. We must be getting to know our way around Dallas because we didn’t get lost once going to Garland.

We talked hockey all the way to the AAC and parked pretty close by as it was REALLY cold last night. It’s freezing in Dallas at the moment! Anyway we saw the line up for the Cup and thought… nah… stuff it. We got a pic from a few metres away and that was enough for us. We dropped in to see Ralph and he was just great. He asked what we thought of the game and then we talked about the after game show. He asked if we listen to it and I said I did but Sam didn’t. And Ralph replied, “Yeah but he’s a kiwi, right?” and I grinned and said, “Thanks for backing me up on that!”

He asked if we’d seen any of the players and we said we’d seen 14 of them but missed Mike cuz he slipped out the back. Ralph said to catch him at the rink tomorrow (Thursday) and he’ll see if he can set it up for us. Then he asked for our card because he’s thinking of taking his family to Australia in the next couple of years. I said we didn’t have one but he said to write our details down and give them to him tomorrow at the rink. I said, “Sure, no problem. And if you come in your summer here, and call us, I can hook you up for tickets for the Australian Ice Hockey League!” and he said “Oh yeah, you can hook me up!” and I replied with, “Yeah, as a way of saying thank you, you know, returning the favour!”

Anyway we chatted until he had to go and get ready for the broadcast, so we went down to the glass in 124 behind Turks to watch the warm up. The guys looked GREAT. I couldn’t help but grin when I saw Mike come out on the ice. He was smiling and flying and looked really relaxed. The guys looked like they were bringing it but good. And it was great to see Robi in the lineup too. That was really a joy. I love watching Robidas play D. He’s an elegant skater, and he’s gritty. He works hard, he plays hard, and he does get the job done. He may not have the hands of Modano, or the shot of Zubov, but … Robi is a decent player and I wish we got to see him play more often. Unfortunately it means that someone has to sit out. Janne Niinimaa may not have won over all the fans in Dallas yet, and considering he was traded for the fans’ whippin’ boy he seems to have inherited the title Erskine left behind, but I love all the boys and that includes Niini. You wear the Green, gold, black and white, you’re alright with me automatically. And I’ll defend ya to the death.

Rhonda and Tatjana left us just before the game started and we went down 1-0 to the Wild 10.57 in the first. Marian Gaborik scored, assisted by Piere-Marc Bouchard and Kurtis Foster. Bastards. It was very back and forth in the first, with the Stars playing a dump and chase kind of game. With 48 seconds left in the second, Left Winger Jussi Jokinen (or as Razor calls him, Jack River - which is what Jussi Jokinen is in english) tied the game, assisted by Jere Lehtinen and Willie Mitchell, who was playing against the team that traded him to us not even a month ago!

In the break, Zack and Andrea came down and chatted with us. It was great to see them and talk about the trip so far. We agreed to catch up after the game and meet up outside the Old No 7 Bar. The second started, with Wild goaltender, Manny Fernandez, at our end of the ice. It was awesome to watch another great goalie in net - unfortunately we didnt’ get to see any goals because the only goal in the second was scored 15.53 into the third by the Wild - Brian Rolston, assisted by Mikko Koivu and Marian Gaborik.

Leni dropped by in the intermission between the second and third, and we had a chat. We agreed to meet up at the Frisco StarCentre the next day at the practice. When the third started, I barely had a voice left. I could be heard screaming out LEHTS GO STARS! I made a few people around me laugh or turn around to see who was screaming but I didn’t care. I was at a hockey game, and you need to make noise at a hockey game! I also took a radio along to listen to Ralph and Razor call the game. It’s SO much better when you have both the live game in front of you and the guys calling it too. It’s like live television. Awesome. Another awesome thing in the third was Marty Turco, our goalie, bodychecking a Wild player - who I can’t remember his name - when he was chasing the puck down on a one on one. Marty came out of his net, poked the puck away and then checked the Wild player - sending the crowd wild themselves! It was a beautiful moment.

3.47 into the third, Right Winger Jere Lehtinen tied the game again, assisted by Jason Arnott and Jussi Jokinen. It was a beautiful goal too. We jumped and screamed and hugged and danced to Rock N Roll II - yelling out “HEY!” at the appropriate time. Jon Klemm, Stars Defenseman, netted the game winning goal at 5.26 in the third, assisted by Jussi Jokinen and Mike Modano. I screamed on that one too. When they were annoucing the names of the scorers I was screaming when they called out MIIIIIIIIKE MO-DA-NO! It was fabulous. The Stars then scored an insurance goal at 9.05 by Stu Barnes, assisted by Brenden Morrow (who hadn’t scored a point in 9 games) and Jason Arnott - or as we like to call him… Tim Tam. *GRIN*

After the game was over, and we were done yelling and jumpin’ up and down and screaming, we met up with Zack, Andrea, Tatjana, Rhonda and Andrea’s sister and brother in law and had a group photo and a chat. We then met up with Gail and her husband who we dont’ know his name but know he’s a Wings fan who lives in Dallas and goes to the StarCentre to get the guys to sign stuff all the time. On the way back to Rhonda’s we listened to the Stars Extra show and were happy to hear Ralphie talking about hockey instead of basketball and football. Marty Turco was the Stars interviewee and he was really good to listen to. When we got back to the hotel, we showed Amber our wares and gave her a program from the game that we picked up.

Tomorrow it’s off to Frisco to hopefully meet more of the guys and watch them practice.

~ Wendy