Eurolanche

Denver Post printed Fan Club's story

Eurolanche Invasion VII was a unique trip in many ways. You will find recaps of this trip at Eurolanche.com in the near future. One of the most successful moments in the Eurolanche history happened on the last day of the seventh trip of Eurolanche members to Colorado.

Famous and well-respected journalist Terry Frei published in the Sunday issue of Denver Post – the biggest Colorado newspaper – large story about the Eurolanche and Invasion VII. For the first time ever, a print version of Denver Post published a story about the Fan Club. In the past, the Eurolanche appeared many times in at the website of Denver Post – mainly like a source of the Avalanche news.

Frei wrote about first years of the Fan Club; described how the Eurolanche president David Puchovsky has become a Colorado Avalanche fan and finally mentioned Invasion VII project too. Terry Frei has been a sport reporter for many years and he covered also other sports, not only an ice hockey. He is an author of many sports books that you can find at his personal website www.terryfrei.com. His recent book as a co-author with Adrian Dater is about the last Colorado Avalanche season. After Dater's departure from Denver Post, Frei is more involved in a covering of the Avs hockey after years again.

Published story about Eurolanche in Denver Post is the next successful media appearance of the Fan Club. Besides mentioned appearances at the online Denver Post, Fan Club's story was broadcasted three times on Altitude TV and Fox 31; the biggest European magazine about the NHL called Pro Hockey (Kevin Allen and Frei are its correspondents) published two stories about past Invaisons; Puchovsky was a host in the sports talkshow on the Slovak TV called DIGI Sport; Invasion story appeared in the famous Slovak weekly magazine; and this list includes also dozens of mentions at the websites like for example Yahoo Sports, The Hockey News, NBC Sports Talk and many others.

Terry Frei's story about the Eurolanche:

Frei: Avalanche has hundreds of fans abroad in Eurolanche Fan Club (click for an original version at Denver Post's website)

Since 2007, a vocal group of Europeans almost annually has traveled to Colorado, dedicated to demonstrating that the Avalanche fan base indeed stretches around the world.

This time, the contingent from the Eurolanche Fan Club included eight of the group's nearly 500 members, and they were scheduled to finish up their 17-day U.S. visit at the Saturday home game against Dallas. The contingent last week split up for side trips to Chicago for the Avs' 2-0 road victory over the Blackhawks and to San Francisco before reconnecting in Denver.

Seven in what was billed as "Invasion VII" are from Slovakia: Eurolanche president David Puchovsky, 24; Rudolf Sery, 27; Tomas Vnuk, 29; Michaela Masarykova, 19; Juraj Culak, 24; Stanislava Culakova, 29; and Branislav Svek, 32. They were joined by Austrian Norbert Gruber, 31.

Puchovsky is from Bratislava, Slovakia's capital, the home of Peter Stastny, the Hall of Fame winger who defected from Czechoslovakia with his brother Anton and joined the Quebec Nordiques in 1980. Peter is the father of Paul Stastny, who left the Avalanche to sign with St. Louis — where Peter also has a home — after last season, and the Avalanche now doesn't have any Slovaks on its roster. Previously, Colorado's Slovaks included goalie Peter Budaj and winger Marek Svatos.

"When I was 10, I was just playing street hockey and my friends the same age introduced me to Avalanche hockey," Puchovsky said. "I wanted to be involved and looked on the Internet, and that's how I became a fan of this team."

The Avalanche then didn't have any Slovaks and games rarely were available — or perhaps were difficult and expensive to see — on television in Europe.

"I didn't have any favorite players — well, maybe Joe Sakic as the old-time leader, but I just liked the whole team," Puchovsky said.

Puchovsky, now a journalist for Slovakia's national newspaper ("I write breaking news"), said the annual excursion has become more organized over the years.

"The first year, we didn't know what to do," he said. "We just stayed at a friend's house, but now everything is scheduled from the first hour we came here to the last."

Eurolanche isn't limited to Europeans and has members from 34 nations.

"The reason there are so many Slovaks here is that I am from Slovakia and it's easier to do some promotion in my home country, rather than, for example, France and Germany," Puchovsky said.

Puchovsky added that the Avalanche organization has been "very nice" to the group, helping out with some tickets and arranging sessions to meet the team. This trip, the eight stayed in two rooms in a Westminster budget hotel and took side trips across the state, including to Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Keystone and Lake Dillon, and still were cost-conscious.

"In the past, some of the group members would stay at a friend's house, but this time we decided to be one big team and stay at one place, and I think it's really funny," Puchovsky said.

Was the group's loyalty tested in the Avalanche's down years?

"It was hard to wake up at 3 a.m. local time and watch another losing game," Puchov- sky said. "But I just like this team. There are bad times and there are good times. And we believe there will be many good years ahead of us." 

Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei

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