​Saturday, January 14th:
First up, the Seattle Seahawks took on the Atlanta Falcons and for the second year in a row, the Seattle Seahawks couldn’t make it past the divisional round. They fell to the Atlanta Falcons 36-20. The question that was on everyone’s mind after this game is, can an entire game’s momentum really shift in one penalty? The answer seems to be a resounding, yes. It came in the second quarter, holding on Kevin Pierre-Louis, all while Devin Hester took a punt 80 yards for nothing. If there was no penalty could the Seahawks have scored again going up double digits in the 2nd? The world may never know. After the call, Atlanta scored 17 unanswered points and the Seahawks never had the momentum again. It may not be fair to pin an entire loss on one play since there were two whole quarters left after the call but if you believe in the power of momentum than you may just believe that this penalty was a game changer.

Next, the Houston Texans faced off against the New England Patriots Saturday night, doing their best to shake Tom Brady in their 34-16 loss. The Patriots started off strong, Dion Lewis had a 98-yard kickoff return, the first ever by the Patriots in the post season. But then the Texans started to show a little force of their own. They were able to intercept Brady, twice and their defense kept pressure on the Patriots forcing them to kick a field goal two yard from the goal line. After their strong showing in the first, things sort of unraveled. The Texans suffered from three interceptions and could only come up with a field goal. The Texans fell victim to the Patriots in Foxborough, a story there were only all too familiar with already.

Sunday, January 15th:
First game of the day, Dallas Cowboys took on the Green Bay Packers coming up shy in a 34-31 loss. Rookie quarterback, Dak Prescott threw three touchdown passes, more touchdown passes than Tony Romo has thrown in a single playoff game. He kept his cool to the end, throwing an 11 yard to pass to Jason Witten with 1:07 left on the clock. After that, things, well they got interesting. In an effort to save their final time out, the Cowboys spiked the ball with 48 seconds left, kicking a 52-yard field goal to tie. What did spiking the ball do? It exchanges one down for 10 to 15 seconds additional game play.  It could have worked, but it didn’t. After the Dallas’ field goal the Packers got the ball and scored their own 50+ field goal for the win.
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Next, Pittsburgh Steelers took on the Kansas City Chiefs in an 18-16 win. Much like the Seahawks the day prior, The Chiefs’ season came to a close and it might just be pinned to a holding call. The Chiefs were down by two when quarterback, Alex Smith completed a pass to Demetrius Harris for what should have been a tie game, if only Eric Fisher didn’t get called for holding. The penalty took the two point conversion off the board and pushed the Chiefs back 10 yards. The Steelers were then able to pull out a win with star quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger running a passing play. 

Next week's match ups are: Green Bay vs. Atlanta and New England vs. Pittsburgh. 

Written by Kristen

Hartford’s favorite Hockey team scores their first win of the year against the Phantoms on January 6th, 2017 at the XL Center. This was a long overdue win from the team! Magnus Hellberg saved the day with 31 deflective blocks against the Phantom’s shots. However that was not the real win of the evening. The award for BIG WIN goes to XL Center for their crowd drawing special event: $1 Hotdog night.

Often going to a hockey game can be pretty expensive. Ticket prices are fair, but anyone can walk away feeling penniless with the prices of concessions. The XL Center doesn’t allow any outside food or beverages. So bringing a picnic basket means it will probably be surrendered to Sonar, the Wolf Pack’s mascot.  Though not all is lost! From time to time the XL Center will host the $1 hotdog and $2 beer night. And for the millennials out there, no need to worry. The concession stands take card payments as well as cash! Transactions go through very quickly. No need to worry about long lines. Fans have until the start of the 2nd Period to fill up on hot dogs and cheap beer! This is a great way to attend the Wolf Pack games on a budget. Not on a budget? With such affordable prices on hot dogs, treat yo self to some of the other concessions! Between my partner and I, we enjoyed the game with 6 hot dogs, 5 beers and a cotton candy. (Total cost of food: $21.)

Calorie counting? On average a hot dog with bun is about 260 calories. A hockey game is a good night for a cheat day. Not to mention walking around the center, walking up and down stairs, sitting and kind of “coaching” your team for 115 minutes could burn roughly 230 calories. Suggestion: Use a calorie counting app to figure out the real gain.

The rest of the evening was pretty fun. The Wolf Pack scored 2-1 on the Phantoms and Sonar got the crowd going with some sweet dance moves. 

Interested in attending one of these events? The Wolf Pack currently has scheduled a few of these events and would love you to come cheer them on! Check out tickets for February 3rd against the Utica Comets, February 24th against the Hershey Bears, March 24th against the Providence Bruins, and April 7th against the Springfield Thunderbirds.

Written by Kaza