It's time to finish my travel log.
Either put your feet up or don't read on, it may take a little time,
Arrived at Lausanne arena and from the outside looked very impressive and lots of stewards on hand around the outside grounds to help.
Unfortunately our away area was at the trades persons entrance around the back.
We were met by a steward and 2 armed guards , I kid you not but they were all very pleasant.
The away area has its own toilets and bar area separated away from the home fans which made beer purchasing a dream., lots were bought.
Had a good chat with the handful of traveling devils fans that were there, we also had fans in our area that didn't like Lausanne but joined us to watch the game.
Pre-game video on the arena screens for the Devils was awesome, we should use it.
National anthem was sang loud and proud.
Now I'm not going to go through the whole game so I will summarize what we saw in the arena.
The teams were very evenly matched, our guys left everything on the ice, the effort was immense, not one player on that ice just coasted and all the traveling fans had no grumbles at all. I think if Louis and Mikkelson had iced it may have swung our way. The own goal at the end was just an unfortunate mistake, nothing more than that as we were directly in front of where it happened and we still kept supporting till the last second and beyond.
We had 2 surprise visitors who joined us for the whole of the second and third period, Mr Luke Piggott and Mr Brian Parker (The owner) ,. Great to see both and both gave time to talk to all the fans.
During the second period Mr Parker bought everyone in the away section a beer, that I found an act of amazing generosity.
NOW THEN, this is the most telling fact of my experience.
I needed to use the toilet before leaving the arena, both the urinals were in use. Mr Parker (the Devils owner) in one and a non British supporter in the other, I skipped in to the cubicle without them being aware of it.
Brian Parker was talking to the supporter about the Devils team, in those few moments I could hear the passion in his voice for our team, this definitely isn't just a business, he is a true fan.
He was also defending Register and the own goal. His exact words were "Register is an awesome player, it was just an unlucky pass, he will want to do right and come back stronger, I know he will, I have full faith in this guy and this team are awesome "
Those few sentences were from the heart not from the wallet and he didn't know I was there.
So..... The result wasn't what we'd liked but the experience was amazing and thank you to the hard core traveling devils fans for welcoming us in to family.
We shall see you back at the IAW on the 11th as we have 5 more days in montreux.
LETS GO DEVILS!