Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 6, 1994 TAG: 9412060045
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I think we're short a man," she said.
Roanoke was indeed short a man, the victim of a roughing penalty, and Charlotte, taking advantage of the power-play, was threatening to score.
Watching, she sat arrow-straight on the edge of her seat, posture-perfect, as if sitting for a formal portrait. Her face continued steadfast in its concentration, focused on the action, thoroughly absorbed.
"Bring it back home this way boys!" she shouted out. But the boys - The Roanoke Express - couldn't overcome the power-play.
Charlotte scored.
"Oooo, that was a boo-boo. That was a boo-boo."
Who says boo-boo at a hockey game?
Her name is Ann Inge.
A fixture at Roanoke Express home games, Ann Inge doesn't exactly fit the profile of a typical hockey fan. Her age is the first distinguishing difference. She won't reveal it, but around the Roanoke Civic Center on any given night of hockey, her age sets her apart.
Hockey in Roanoke draws mostly the young, not the gray.
What else sets her apart is not so easily spotted. It is her enthusiasm, her team spirit. Around the Roanoke Civic Center, few fans have as much of either, or enjoy a good game of hockey more.
Inge says many of her friends and contemporaries don't understand. They won't come out to a game, won't even give hockey a chance. "They say it's all a put on, like wrestling."
Ten seconds after Charlotte scored to open a 1-0 lead, Inge returned to form, optimistic and spirited as always, offering her running commentary. "We're gonna get a goal right now."
On this night, a Tuesday when the Express hosted the Charlotte Checkers, she sat surrounded mostly by family in the eight box seats her husband bought out for all 37 Express home games.
"We're gonna a get a goal right here."
A minute later, Roanoke scored to tie the game. Inge, as she does every time Roanoke scores, jumped to her feet with the spring of a woman 50 years younger. She exchanged high-fives with her daughter and joined the crowd in singing "The Hey Song," which is played in the arena after every Roanoke goal.
From her seat, Inge sat close enough to hear the ice shaving under the blades of the players as they skated past her seat. She sat just behind the clear plastic barrier separating the game from the stands, eyeball level with the players and close enough to want to duck slightly whenever the puck or a hard check to the glass came in her direction.
Usually, she holds a radio up to her ear to listen to the game broadcast on the radio. On this night, however, her daughter brought her a set of radio earphones to use instead, but the earphones wouldn't pick up the station very well.
She kept fooling with them anyhow, as is her nature. Just as hockey is a game of constant adjustments, Inge also went through her own adjustments during the course of a game.
She tried the earphones, then put them away, then took them out again, put them away and tried again. The glare of the lights on the ice bothered her, so she tried the rain hat to shade her eyes. She tried eye shades. Then neither. Then the hat, the shades, then nothing again. She dug out a pair of binoculars from her bag, used them awhile, returned them, then dug them out again. In her bag, she also kept a stash of chocolate chip cookies.
Inge doesn't like being watched so closely. She said she doesn't like publicity, but she admitted she isn't like most other hockey fans.
"Whoa! Leave that boy alone!" she called out after a hard blindside check by a Charlotte player left a Roanoke player doubled-over on the ice. "It's bad enough when someone gets hurt, but when it's something like that. ...
"Can you believe that? Didn't even penalize them."
The predictable pushing between the two teams followed, but a full fight never broke out. For this game, there wouldn't be any serious altercations.
Inge doesn't like fighting. "I think there's enough fighting going on in this world without having to pay to see it. I think there's a better way for them to solve their differences."
Inge and her husband, Bill, first started following local hockey around 15 years ago, first with the Salem Raiders, then with the Virginia Lancers, who played in Vinton, then the Roanoke Valley Rebels, the Rampage, and now with the Express.
Bill Inge said he comes to the games more for her benefit than his own, although she disputed that claim. After all, he is the one last year who kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings for Express player Tony Szabo. But she is the one who listens to the Express away games on the radio when she can.
He said hockey is the only sport his wife has ever taken a strong liking to. "She thinks you make a touchdown on a baseball diamond, but she can tell you anything about hockey," he teased.
For her, hockey is a diversion. "It makes you sort of forget about your problems. Anything that's going on, if you've had a bad day, you come to the game and you don't think about it for two or three hours," she said.
The puck suddenly smacked with an explosive pop against the glass just in front of her. She smiled, startled, and breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Oh my," she said.
The game headed into the final minutes with Roanoke leading 5-4. "Shoot it in boys! Shoot it in boys! One more, just one more for a safety net."
Instead, Charlotte scored and the game went into overtime. Inge said she hoped it wouldn't end in a final shootout. She laughed. "Too exciting for the heart."
On this night, the overtime was exciting enough. Nearly all of its five minutes went by without either team scoring.
"He's holding that man. That's holding!" Her running commentary never let up. "All right, get us a goal. Put it in now."
On this night, there wouldn't be any repeat boo-boos. With only 19 seconds remaining in overtime, Roanoke's Derek Laxdal found the loose puck near Charlotte's goal and shuffled it into the net for the game winner.
Inge, on cue, jumped to her feet and joined in the celebration, clapping and jumping and exchanging high-fives all around.
"Woooo! Woooo! Now wasn't that fun. Woooo!"
by CNB