PITTSBURGH — Nick Comito and Mitch Bell had a pretty solid Memorial Day planned out; the college students, both trumpet players, would play "Taps" at a memorial service in nearby Greensburg, Pa., then head to Consol Energy Center to watch Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final outdoors on the big screen.
Those plans changed.
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By 2:30, both guys had claimed their space near the screen. Comito was sitting with an American flag he'd screwed into an old stick shaft. Naturally, people were taking pictures of it, including Getty Images photographer Bruce Bennett.
By around 6:30, the Getty photo had made it to the NHL's Instagram page.
Comito's friends bombarded the comments, and his location was obvious, so a league representative stopped by with the reward: two seats in Section 224.
“I saw (Comito) come back with the two tickets in his hand, like ‘We’re going in,'" Bell said. "So, two free tickets, a puck signed by (Chris Kunitz), and we’re here. For zero dollars.”
If those guys had tried to buy on StubHub, they'd have been out, oh, $400 or so.
The only issue: The people they'd planned to watch outdoors with weren't as lucky, including Bell's sister and girlfriend. Whoops.
“They get here, we win the tickets, and they went back home to Oakland to watch," Bell said.
“We were like, ‘We’ll see ya. We’re leaving'" Comito said.
And then they rode the elevator up to their seats. Not bad.