The ShoWare Center was the place to be Saturday night in Kent.
A ShoWare record-setting sellout crowd of 6,151 watched the rival Portland Winterhawks beat the Seattle Thunderbirds 6-1 in a Western Hockey League game.
“It was fun,” said Colin Campbell, vice president of the T-Birds, in a phone interview Monday. “The energy in the building was electric from the time the doors opened.”
Only single tickets remained by late Saturday afternoon and fans bought those seats by early evening.
“We did turn people away,” Campbell said.
Fans who showed up too late to get a ticket Saturday did get a deal from the T-Birds. They could purchase tickets for a $4 discount to the Portland game on Feb. 6 at the ShoWare.
“We sold a couple of hundred tickets for that game,” Campbell said.
The crowd of 6,151 broke the mark of 6,138 set when Portland played the T-Birds last Feb. 28 during their first season at the ShoWare.
Fans were pumped up all night even though the T-Birds lost again and are in last place in the U.S. Divsion of the Western Conference with a record of 14-26-4-4. Portland led 2-0 after the first period and 4-1 after the second period.
“The fans did the wave for the first time at the ShoWare,” Campbell said. “Even with the score, they were still having fun.”
Fans also tossed 4,049 stuffed animals on the ice in the second period when Seattle scored its first goal. The T-Birds have the annual Teddy Bear Toss to collect stuffed animals for children in times of emergency and crisis. The Teddy Bear Patrol from radio station Warm 106.9 FM will distribute the animals to children.
The game featured fighting as well as hockey.
Four fights broke out late in the third period. Seattle and Portland each had four players penalized for fighting.
The T-Birds next home game is at 5:05 p.m. Jan. 31 against Kelowna. More than 5,000 fans are expected to attend the game, Campbell said.
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