Cernensek, a 31-year-old from Slovenia, will be wearing his Avalanche jersey and cheering from his seat in section U2 at Falcon Stadium, where his favorite team will play against the Los Angeles Kings, captained by his country's greatest player, Anze Kopitar, in the 2020 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series game at the United States Air Force Academy (8 p.m. ET; NBC, SN360, TVAS, AFN|sports2).
"I'm not torn at all," Cernensek said while watching the Avalanche practice Friday. "I wish Anze all the best, but not in this game."
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Cernensek is one of 12 members of the Eurolanche Fan Club, the Avalanche's largest fan club, who will be at the Stadium Series game Saturday.
Eurolanche was created in 2007 by founding member David Puchovsky, who lives outside Bratislava, Slovakia. He initially created it as a website where Avalanche fans in Europe could write about the team in a discussion board.
The club started with 20 members; it's now up to 1,047 from 44 countries on every continent except Antarctica. Fans sign up for free membership on Eurolanche.com, where details of the club, its history, events and trips to Denver are documented.
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Puchovsky has organized a two-week trip to Denver, which the club calls its Eurolanche Invasion, every season since 2008-09. He looks for a time when the Avalanche have several consecutive home games and perhaps an easy-to-make road trip.
The Avalanche are 41-23-6 when the Eurolanche are in attendance.
Three members -- Puchovsky, Jozef Illes from Slovakia and Ben Robinson from the United Kingdom -- who were in Denver for the Stadium Series game against the Detroit Red Wings at Coors Field on Feb. 27, 2016, a 5-3 Avalanche loss, are here for the game at Falcon Stadium.
They stay in Lakewood, Colorado, about a 20-minute drive from Pepsi Center and an hour from Falcon Stadium.
"When the rumors of this game got leaked two years ago, we were here," Puchovsky said. "We were driving to Colorado Springs and we read some tweets about it, so we decided to take a look at the stadium. We made a decision then that we would come back here for the game."
Cernensek decided this would be the best time for his first trip to North America. He called it a birthday gift to himself.
"I'm loving every minute of it," Cernensek said. "I fell in love with Denver as soon as I started following hockey, and it's great being here."
Added Puchovsky, "It was his lifetime dream. He's been a longtime Avalanche fan, and I'm really happy that I and the project and other people who help me contributed to make his dream a reality."
