Eurolanche

Invasion VIII to Denver announced

A tradition continues. The Eurolanche Fan Club will organize its eighth trip of its members called Eurolanche Invasion VIII to Denver for Colorado Avalanche games during the upcoming 2015/16 season. A record number of participants – 12 from five different European countries, will be a part of the unique project between, which will take place between February 24 and March 10, 2016. The fan club members from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Switzerland will be in the stands of the Pepsi Center for five regular-season home games against the San Jose Sharks, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, Arizona Coyotes and Anaheim Ducks. “The highlights of the whole Invasion will be two very special games. We will visit both the Alumni and the Stadium Series games at Coors Field on February 26 and 27,” announced Fan Club President David Puchovsky.

A logo of the trip. It's specifically designed for the special event. None of the previous Invasions had a more unique logo.

David Puchovsky will be back in Denver for a record seventh time. Four more countrymen from Slovakia will join him: Tomas Vnuk for the second time; Jozef Illes, Martin Machnic and Martin Jurkovic for the first time. The Czech Republic will be represented by Ondrej Kolinsky (second appearance), David Gavenda and Jan Nemcik (first time for both). Norbert Gruber of Austria will participate in the event for the sixth time, the second highest number in the entire organization. Robert Heppekausen and Boris Wiedemeyer will become the first Eurolanche members from Germany, who will be a part of the Invasion as well as Alexander Mader from Switzerland.

“Overall, the organization of the Eurolanche Invasion VIII is harder than ever as a total of 12 fans will travel overseas. It is a big challenge for the Fan Club. We do not want to take any risks, so we have been working on this trip since the end of the past season. Thanks to our effort, we could buy tickets for the Alumni/Stadium Series Game for all Invasion members in spite of the sale being strictly limited,” said Puchovsky.

Invasion VII included many trips within and outside of Colorado State. Invasion VIII is supposed to surpass it.

The final number of the visited Avalanche games during Invasion VIII may be even higher – eight – in case the group will travel to Minnesota for an away game against Wild. For now, the final schedule is not known and should be published during the following weeks. “We are still working on it. There were talks about trips all over Colorado, the Grand Canyon or Las Vegas. We really, really want to do everything to make Invasion VIII the best and the most unique trip in Fan Club history. It will be a great honor for us to be in Denver during the Avalanche's 20th season and to be in the stands for the Stadium Series game,” concluded Puchovsky. As every year, the Invasion schedule will include personal meetings with Avalanche players and private meetings with both current and former players, visits to practices on both game- and off-days, interviews for the local media, trips within and outside of Colorado State, visits to other sports events and much more.

Patrick Roy met with Eurolanche members for the first time during the last Invasion.

There will be special Eurolanche Invasion VIII coverage before and during the event for those members, who could not join the group of participants. Non-stop updated news, diaries, photo and video galleries will be available at the special website Invasion.Eurolanche.com that currently offers great reviews of all previous seven Invasions. Besides reading and watching, all Eurolanche members may takepart in a special contests for Avalanche merchandise. Dates and rules will be announced later. Finally, all breaking news and the rest of the coverage will be online at the main website www.eurolanche.com and on two official Eurolanche social network accounts - on Facebook and Twitter.

During Invasion VIII, the Fan Club will offer its members a chance for preliminary registration for the Eurolanche Invasion IX. The next trip should be organized in 2016/17 season - the tenth in Fan Club history. The members who expressed their interest to take part in the Invasion VIII, but ultimately could not take part, will have the first chance to send their preliminary registration for the Invasion IX. The public registration will be announced afterwards.

Part of the Invasion VII group flew to Chicago for an Avalanche away game.

In total, after Invasion VIII, the numbers will speak for themselves – 44 Eurolanche members of eight Invasion trips visited 49 Colorado Avalanche games (two in Minnesota and Chicago).

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