 2/17/1979 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - My Aunt Mary decided for my upcoming birthday to take me on my first plane ride to see our favorite team the Buffalo Sabres play the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Civic Arena in downtown Pittsburgh. The trip to see the game started the day earlier heading to Buffalo Aiport for my first ever time on a plane. At the airport, we ran into some star New York Ranger players, Esposito, Duguay and Sanderson, wearing their full length mink coats and rolling pennies across the floor amusing themselves waiting for thier flight. The Sabres had just beat them the night prior at the Aud. We arrived in Pittsburgh and made it to our hotel right across from the Civic Arena. We had time to visit with Uncle Loren and Aunt Jerry a bit and had a great dinner at the hotel that included an awesome hot fudge sundae bar. We headed to the game early and our seats were literally right on the ice, first row in the corner. We watched both teams warmup and I even managed to snag a practice puck from Pete Mahovlich! The Sabres and Penguins cleared the benches right in front of us in the first period, when Dave "The Hammer" Schultz was ambushed in the corner by two Penguins and Rene Robert led the Sabres off the bench to let the brawl begin. Several game misconducts were given and the Sabres managed to win the period but after that the Penguins took over and won the game 6-3. Even though they lost the game, my Aunt and I had a fantastic trip, thanks Superstar! Game SummarySlideshow |
