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February 28:  Minneapolis, MN
Chicago Blackhawks vs Minnesota Wild
Xcel Energy Center

Five degrees is bone chilling cold for J-Boys.  It's not their native habitat.  Our webbed feet froze in Minneapolis in our fourth straight snowy city.

The Twin Cities were cold, sunny and beautiful.  This is a short mid-week hockey only trip to see Ben's favorite team, the Minnesota Wild.  There's not a lot to do here in the Winter time, but they love hockey.

Ben and I visited two stores that he claims are the greatest he has ever set foot in.  Total Hockey and the HockeyGiant Superstore.

Ben the anti-shopper was hard to drag out of these places.

Here we go Wild!  Ben's team was on a hot streak coming into this important game against the defending world champion Blackhawks.  These teams were virtually tied in the standings and this had a playoff feel to it.  The 19,000 seat arena was sold out on a Monday night.  Minnesota calls itself the "State of Hockey" and you can see why in the Xcel Energy Center.

One of Ben's hockey heroes, Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom, was right below us.  Scoreless after the first period, Chicago put three biscuits in Backstrom's basket in period two.

Minnesota fought back and had a powerplay chance to tie it with 2:00 left.  An exciting game.  The road team has now won five straight and six of the last seven on our tour.

After hacking around Dallas, St. Louis, and Buffalo in dull rental skates, we were smart enough to pack our own blades to the State of Hockey.  

There are a lot of rinks to choose from and we loved the skating academy we chose, the Parade Ice Garden.  They take it seriously here!  There were only a dozen other skaters on a Tuesday morning and eleven of them were awesome.  Ben was a bit intimidated by the skill on the ice here.  But like all Minnesotans they were warm and friendly folk, and the surface was pristine.

We loved it.  And thanks to that twelfth guy for being there.  Even I was better than that guy.  On to warmer climates, its time for more southern hockey.