Hockey hysteria hit an all-time high when the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in overtime Tuesday night. After the game ended, more than 1,500 Hurricane fans camped out all night in hopes of getting some tickets for the Stanley Cup finals.
"Some of us are pretty long in the tooth and haven't done this in a while," Canes fan Steve Byers.
Tickets for home playoff games sold out in about 30 minutes, leaving hundreds of fans empty-handed and frustrated.
"This is bull. It's not the way you treat your fans," said one fan.
Officials said there is a number of reasons why the tickets went so quickly. They have about 12,000 season ticket holders and they set aside tickets for those people, plus the NHL gets a certain allotment of seats, which left fewer than 8,000 tickets per game.
Fans purchasing tickets did have some restrictions. People could only buy 8 tickets per game, and on the Internet, only people from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia could purchase seats.
The high ticket prices obviously did not turn off some Hurricanes fans. On e-Bay, four upper-level seats for game 3 that usually costs $60 each were sold for $905.
If you did not get tickets, but still want to catch some of the hockey action, you do have some options. You can check the classifieds or e-Bay for people selling tickets.
You can also try your luck in the parking lot for people selling tickets.
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