After a cold day trekking around cars stuck in the ground in Amarillo, TX, the drive to Wichita Falls was short and comfortable.  I got in to town well ahead of the game, got a ticket, checked into my hotel room, ate, and headed to the game.

Welcome to Kay Yeager Coliseum.

The coliseum is grouped in with the MPEC, or Multi-Purpose Event Center.  Unlike the Amarillo Civic Center, the MPEC isn’t all one giant building.  Each building is separate, and while I can’t speak to the other buildings, the arena feels like a real arena.

It’s a pretty big place, way more arena than a junior team needs.  The near corner is the Zamboni entrance, which has more negative space than Rubin’s vase.

The downside to playing in a huge arena is it can feel empty when you don’t have a large crowd.  The concourse felt particularly dead.

The DJ and announcer are in the crowd, not down by the ice.

The glass at the Kay is short.  Really short.  How short?  That is a full-sized man in the front row.

Alright, ceremonial puck drop.

And let’s get to the action.  Wait, what?

That photo was barely edited, to show how dark the arena is when the game is on. The lighting was patchy and uneven. It’s one of the darkest games I’ve ever been to.  It’s like the tour of Les Miserable down there.

So yeah, these aren’t the best photos.  I had to jack up the exposure to get anything useful.  The lighting was patchy and uneven.

It’s Shreveport in the black jerseys, Wichita Falls in the white.  Let’s do this.

That’s a goal.  You can tell by the body language of the goalie.  It speaks volumes.

Wichita Falls jumped out to a 2-0 lead, and looked to be in control of the game early.

It didn’t last.

Wichita Falls didn’t think this was a goal, but look at the goalie’s mask.  That’s in.

A little 17 on 17 rough stuff.

This led to a power play for Shreveport.

We leave the first period tied at two.  Wichita had the edge in play.

As you can see, the crowd feels sparse, but attendance was reportedly 1,499.  Not much.  Not horrible.  Not Steel City Warriors bad, but pretty bad.

Second period action.

And that’s about it.  Like I said earlier, the lighting made my photos really dark, and many were unusable.  I’m cutting my losses here.

No goals in the second,  but I have a bucket of chuck-a-pucks.

I did not win.

Third period, and the tide turns to the Mudbugs.

Save.

Goal.

Umm…

Goal.  Note the bouncing water bottle.

And the Shreveport Mudbugs took this one 6-2.  You can find the gamesheet here.

I’ll have more pictures from my next games, which will hopefully be this weekend.

Take it away, local drinking establishment.