Yes, for those of you who thought I was kidding when I spoke in my Problem of Good argument about getting free tickets to tonight’s Avalanche game…you were wrong.

Yup, I got to watch tonight’s game at center ice in the club level. In case you’re wondering, we were in row 3, which put us right next to the camera operators for the network viewing. We were, however, on the opposite side from the broadcast cameras (in other words, the cameras on our side were used for close up shots and for when the puck got hit next to the near boards from the broadcast side).

But it was a blast, and this time the right outcome followed. The Avs won 3-2 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate. Despite the refs giving Columbus quite the advantage in the third period by only calling penalties on one side, including giving Columbus a 5-3 advantage, the Avs held off. (By the way, to see what Columbus got away with, one of their players–I believe it was Nash–was run into the end of the boards by the Avs’ bench in a perfectly legal play that he still took acception to. He skated back to his bench and slammed his stick into the boards, shattering it on ice–no unsportsman like penalty…but the refs immediately after that did call Paul Stastny for hooking….yeah.)

But one-sided officiating is the norm for hockey. It was at least nice to be able to boo the refs and know they heard it ;-)