Garnet Hockey Report: Frozen Four 2011: Day 2

Today was the "off day" of the Frozen Four weekend, so all the hockey fans had a free day to do what they pleased. We, along with many other college hockey fans, decided to attend Opening Day for the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. I saw a decent amount of North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth fan, and one RPI an RIT fan.

I'm a huge baseball junky (I wrote my senior thesis on the Montreal Expos), and have attend a ton of baseball games throughout the country so I had a great time checking out a new stadium and just watching the game. Target Fied opened up last year and is considered to be one of the best stadiums in baseball. I thought the stadium was nice. I really liked all the granite and some of the touches around the stadium, but I still think stadiums such as Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia) and Comerica Park (Detroit) were better. I also wasn't too impressed with the food selection. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the awesome food at CitiField (NY Mets). It was a boring games as the A's scored the first run of the game in the top of the first inning and held on to the 1-0 lead until the bottom of the 8th when the Twins scored two runs before Joe Nathan secured the 2-1 victory for the home team in the 9th. I had never been to an Opening Day before, so I thought there would be a festive feeling at the stadium, but that was not the case. The team did honor some legends and did some ceremonies, but besides that it really didn't feel like Opening Day.

For a late dinner tonight we went to Joe Senser's, which is a sports bar/restaurant right down the street from our hotel in Bloomington (click here). They had some interesting burgers and a decent beer selection. I enjoyed watching the end of the Wild-Oilers game on the big TVs.

Today was also a big day in college hockey as the Hobey Baker and Humanitarian Awards were announced. Miami's Andy Miele won the Hobey (click here), while Boston College's Brooks Dyroff won the Humanitarian Award (click here). Also, as reported before, the All-American teams were announced (click here).

Tomorrow is the last full day of the Frozen Four. Our plan is to head to the Mall of America for a bit and then stop at Mickey's Dining Car before heading to the championship game. It should be an interesting game. I have no idea who I think will win.

Here are some pictures and videos I took at Target Field today: