Fans toast Hawks championship throughout suburbs
Although he had tickets for Game 7 in Chicago, even Doug Lee wanted the Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup on Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Lee, an Elk Grove Village resident and season-ticket holder since 1980, didn't seem to mind losing a chance to watch history on home ice.
"I'm not saying that wouldn't have been a great game," said Lee who watched his team at the Coach's Corner in Elk Grove Village. "But this was pretty nice too."
"I wanted them to end it now," said his wife, Lynette, who would have been at that game with him.
The Lee family joined about 150 screaming Hawks fans who packed Coach's Corner on Wednesday night. Virtually everyone was wearing a Blackhawks sweater and chants of "Let's Go Hawks" filled the place during commercial breaks. Fans watched the game on either a huge Jumbotron or one of the 10 smaller televisions stationed around the bar.
A few minutes before the end of the game, softball teams piled into the bar, making it a standing-room-only crowd.
Alex Bastek, of Addison, painted his face red and black for the big game.
"That third period, they just weren't playing with confidence," Bastek said. "But it was worth it because I got to see the biggest goal of the year."
Three generations of the Carcerano family ran the place on Wednesday. Barely standing 5-feet-tall, grandmother Connie Carcerano made sure patrons who went outside to grab a smoke didn't bring drinks with them. If they did, she'd follow them right out the door, finger wagging.
"Smoke one for me," she told a group who went out before overtime. "I'm so nervous, I couldn't eat," Her grandson, Joe Carcerano, ran things inside.
"It's been this crazy for a month and a half," he said. "We call ourselves the Mad House in Elk Grove."
After the win, Joe Sr., passed out champagne in plastic cups while his customers passed around an inflatable Stanley Cup. Despite the party, Connie Carcerano went right back to work, clearing away empty beer glasses.
"That was just so great," she said with tears in her eyes.
The Coaches Corner celebration played out in other bars throughout the suburbs.
"This is awesome, the Blackhawks just won the cup," said Kevin Kramer, 23, of West Dundee before running back into Rosie O'Hare's in East Dundee to watch Patrick Kane accept the Stanley Cup. "They have been a great team to watch and I have really enjoyed myself."
Like Kramer, Paul Budzynski said he is a lifelong Hawks fan. Budzynski, 36, of Naperville, even has a Hawks tattoo.
"I have read the Hockey News every week for decades. For decades I declined going to some parties and events to watch Hawks games. This is amazing. After following the team for almost my entire life, they did it. They did it."
• Daily Herald staff writers Larissa Chinwah and Harry Hitzeman contributed to this report.
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