Hockeyville was an experience like no other.I’ve gotten to cover some fun events since I’ve moved to the Upper Peninsula, such as watching Ishpeming win multiple state football titles, Munising making it to state finals for the first time in a generation and bringing virtually the entire community with them to Ford Field, and going on the road to see a downstate trip with the Northern Michigan University hockey team.

As cool and memorable as all those things have been, it’ll be hard to top what happened Tuesday.

I had been preparing for the big day for weeks, but when I arrived at Lakeview Arena that morning for the team skates, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Would the hype pay off? Would the players actually want to be there? Would the town and the lucky fans who received tickets show up in droves and scream their hearts out for that night’s game like I and the folks at NBC Sports hoped that they would?

It didn’t take long for my questions to be answered. As I stood outside that morning with the sun starting to shine upon the arena, I saw dozens of people already lined up to greet the players of both teams as they came off their respective buses.

Some of them were diehard hockey fans, decked out in Red Wings or Hockeyville gear, while others probably hadn’t ever watched a game before and just wanted to see things up close.

I watched as the Carolina Hurricanes slowly made their way up to Lakeview, signing autographs along the way and posing for pictures with kids.

It was clear that even if the kids didn’t know who these players were, they were thrilled that a millionaire athlete would take the time to talk with them, even if it was just for a few seconds.

I’ve worked with kids for several years before I became a sports writer and I know that it’s little things like that that they will remember for years.

I listened as the Buffalo Sabres skated around the rink practicing drills and I heard the local coaches telling their players to watch them perform and to remember what they saw.

Not surprisingly, most of the kids were focused on 19-year-old phenom Jack Eichel and a handful of them audibly said that they wanted to be like him.

As fun as it was to watch two NHL teams practice in front of you, obviously the main event was the game that night.

After I completed my last-minute interviews and talked to NBC Sports for my behind-the-scenes feature story (it was in Friday’s Journal), I came up to the media deck to take in the surroundings.

For the first time since I had moved to Marquette, I saw a sold-out game at Lakeview. I had been told so many tales about the noise and how the arena had been so hostile for opposing teams that it had built up a national reputation.

From the very beginning, the fans in the crowd seemed genuinely happy to be there. When the Hurricanes came out of the tunnel, they received a standing ovation. The same thing happened a few seconds later when the Sabres took the ice.

Then the two girls, twins Karen and Megan Ludwig of Marquette, gave a truly great rendition of the national anthem and the crowd became truly entranced in the game.

When Carolina rang a shot off the pipe in the opening period, I saw the crowd in front of me jumping to their feet, anticipating that a puck was soon going in the net.

It finally did in the second period, and of course I didn’t get to see it as I was watching it in the NBC Sports broadcast van. However, I could hear the reaction from outside and that was fun.

I finally made my way back inside late in the period and I got to see Buffalo’s second goal on a nice deflection that drew an audible “Wow” from the people directly below me.

I also saw a couple of guys go insane when there was a rough scrum in the corner of the Buffalo zone that led to some trash talking and two penalties. Part of the crowd was practically pleading for a fight to break out.

As the final two minutes of the game ticked away, I saw people stand up when the Hurricanes pulled goalie Cam Ward for an extra attacker. Even the most casual of fans scooted toward the edges of their seats as Carolina hit two more pipes attempting to cut its deficit.

When the final horn sounded, the entire crowd leapt to its feet and expressed its thanks with another standing ovation.

I moved on to the postgame media session where several players expressed their feelings about playing in front of a passionate crowd like that. Buffalo head coach Dan Bylsma talked about how happy he was that a Michigan town earned the title of Hockeyville.

As I carried my materials out of the arena, I saw some people standing around Buffalo’s bus hoping to catch one last glimpse of the players and maybe get a final autograph.

I even heard one kid say how happy he was to be there and that’s when I knew I had found what I was truly searching for.

I wrote last week that Marquette deserved the title of Hockeyville, but it had to show it on a national stage. They did, even surpassing my expectations.

The noise, the passion and the joy of fans both as they entered and left the arena are what I will take away from Tuesday night and remember for years to come.

It was an experience like no other and I’m glad that I got to experience it with all of you.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.