Golden Knights-Capitals series has full attention of Vegas firefighters

LAS VEGAS --The call came over the intercom at Fire Station 1 in downtown Las Vegas on Wednesday.
"Chow."
It was chicken fajita night, and it was time for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Washington Capitals about six miles away at T-Mobile Arena.

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If they weren't in the kitchen already, the firefighters hustled in to grab their grub and sit in front of the television mounted next to the Golden Knights pennant on the wall.
"That's the only time dinner's on time," firefighter paramedic Mike McFate said with a laugh. "When there's a Knights game."

Not long ago, few cared about hockey in the Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Department. Out of 20 men in C Platoon at Station 1, one was a fan, fire engineer Gregg Burns, and the others made fun of him for it.
Now?
"All 20," fire engineer Kelly Brinkerhoff said. "[Burns] was like, 'If you guys would have listened to me years ago we would have been doing this all along.' But nobody cared because we didn't have a team."

The NHL gave Las Vegas its first major league sports team when it awarded the city an expansion franchise. Before the Golden Knights played a regular-season game, they responded to the mass shooting on the Strip on Oct. 1 that killed 58 and injured hundreds.
Defenseman Deryk Engelland had played in Las Vegas in the ECHL from 2003-05 and lived there in the offseason. He had played in the Las Vegas Firefighters Youth Hockey Foundation annual charity game. With his wife, Melissa, he brought groceries to the union hall Oct. 2.
The Golden Knights visited victims, families, first responders and blood donors that week, and honored first responders at their home opener on Oct. 10 and throughout the season. When they held a lunch for struggling firefighters Dec. 13, they were presented with a fire helmet. It now hangs in their locker room at their practice facility, City National Arena.

"I'm very proud to be a fireman," firefighter Ryan Nimmo said. "I think it's the best job in the world. I wouldn't want to do anything else. So for something like the Knights to rep the fire department, that feels good."
The Golden Knights won, too, shattering records for first-year teams, excelling for any kind of team.
"It's well-needed," captain Fred Koss said. "It's done so much for our crews for morale across the board, just something to take our minds off the everyday grind."
Platoon C started a 48-hour shift at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. The men put out a cooking fire in an apartment, went through training and responded to medical emergencies. Station 1 is the busiest in the city, averaging 70 calls per day, pushing 110 per day on the weekends.

Fifteen weren't responding to a call when Game 2 began. When forward James Neal gave Vegas a 1-0 lead 7:58 into the first period, the firefighters cheered, high-fived and banged the tables.
"Real Deal Neal!" one shouted.
"Check it out!" another shouted as NBC showed the replay.
"Boom!" another shouted as the puck found the net.
Each time the bells went off the firefighters' ears would perk up to see if duty called for them.
"Truck 1."
"Aww …"
Four men were gone in seconds, peeling out of the station, siren wailing.
When Capitals forward Lars Eller tied the game 1-1 at 17:27, the firefighters groaned. One got up and fired a piece of trash into a can. The room went silent.

The period ended, and everyone knew what that meant: dishes.
"We won't do dishes until [intermission]," McFate said. "No one gets up. There's a new guy in here or someone from another station? And he gets up to do dishes and the hockey's still on? Yeah, he gets stuff thrown at him. 'Sit down!'"
The bells kept going off. The firefighters kept rushing off. The Capitals kept scoring. By the middle of the second, there was one man left in the kitchen, and Washington led 3-1. In the end, Washington won 3-2 and tied the best-of-7 series 1-1.
But you know dinner will be on time again for Game 3 at Washington on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).
"It gives us more opportunity to be together as a crew," Brinkerhoff said. "Guys hang out more here in the kitchen. Guys joke with each other more. There's more camaraderie. There's more bonding. There's more laughing. There's better times, so that when you do have those serious calls, you can cope with it a little bit better because we're actually a tighter group."

What if the Golden Knights win the Cup?
"Bring 'em down," McFate said. "We'll throw 'em on the truck, throw 'em on the engine, take 'em down [Las Vegas] Boulevard, put that Stanley Cup up there. We're so proud of them and what they've done for the city."