Thrashers score as NHL’s Hockey Love Cupids

Cupid doesn’t always use a bow and arrow. Sometimes it’s a hockey stick and a puck.

Here are three Thrashers love stories for your Valentine’s Day.

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Pouya Dianat / pdianat@ajc.com

Hockey Love: Nick and Jessica Mullins love hockey - and each other.

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Wedding night at Philips Arena

Nick and Jessica Mullins went to Thrashers games in Tampa and Sunrise, Fla., on their honeymoon. They went to a Thrashers game at Philips Arena on their wedding night.

He came dressed in his tuxedo pants and rented shoes, with a bow tie over the authentic referee’s jersey his wife had given him at their rehearsal dinner. She still had her veil in her hair. He had given her a red Thrashers jersey and bought them tickets directly behind the glass.

The Thrashers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2, and as one of the referees came off the ice he shook his head at Nick and flipped him a puck.

It was April 1, 2006, and the bride and groom’s post-nuptials hockey game struck some wedding guests as an April Fool’s joke.

“A lot of people didn’t understand,” Jessica said. “They questioned us and asked if it was more him than me.”

It wasn’t.

When it comes to hockey, she’s not humoring him. She’s a real fan, so much so that she not only knows who Gordie Howe is, she got to meet him when she volunteered at the 2008 NHL All-Star Game in Atlanta.

“There’s never been a situation where a hockey game’s been on TV and she’s wanted to watch something else,” Nick said. And that has made a lot of his friends jealous.

By day he works at a car audio and video dealership and she’s a book store sales manager. At night you’ll find them in Section 318, Row L, high above the ice directly behind one goal. They were also among the 151 Thrashers fans who traveled to Raleigh for a game on Jan. 31.

The Mullins weren’t born into hockey. He grew up in Paulding County, she in Douglas County. But he got hooked on the Thrashers during the 2003-04 season and soon became a season-ticket holder. And then he found a girlfriend who liked going to hockey games on dates.

One of those dates was the 2005-06 preseason home opener, and they got picked to play one of the in-game contests. Her job: Track the truck on the Jumbotron that carried the UPS package. She made her selection, but there was no package, just a message: “Will You Marry Me?”

Jessica said yes, of course, and the newly-engaged couple got to ride the Zamboni during the second intermission. Guys yelled at him, “Don’t do it!” Women shouted at her to show them her ring.

The Thrashers are 102-102-25 since Nick and Jessica exchanged “I dos.” They haven’t won a playoff game in franchise history. The Mullins keep supporting them nonetheless.

“Just like you love your spouse for richer, for poorer, for better or worse, you love your team for better or worse,” Jessica said. “It’s almost like being married to them.”

Cute in a hockey jersey

The Thrashers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 on Dec. 1, 2000, but what happened during the game is less important than what happened afterward.

That’s when Deanna Salonen spotted a guy in Jock’s and Jill’s wearing a Los Angeles Kings jersey.

“I thought he was cute,” she said. “We started talking, and it just clicked.”

“Right away we knew,” Karri Salonen said. “We were going to get married from the first day we met.”

Well, maybe he knew. She wasn’t so sure. Their conversation revealed they would both be in Tampa visiting relatives for Christmas, and she told him she had grown up cheering for the Lightning.

“He jokingly said maybe you can go [to a Lightning game] with me,” Deanna said. “I thought I would never hear from him again.”

But he followed up, and they did go that game, Dec. 23, 2000 against the New Jersey Devils, their first official date. They’ve been seeing hockey games together ever since. When Karri introduced his parents to Deanna, it was at a Thrashers game.

The Salonens’ wedding reception was the night of the 2002 home opener. They didn’t throw the party at Philips Arena, but they did insist the game telecast be available for their hockey loving friends to watch.

Karri has given Deanna so many hockey gifts “I had to make him stop,” she said, but she gives him hockey gifts, too. They’ve got enough jerseys for each day of the month, about 40 pucks pyramided on their bookcases and a home office wall covered with autographed photos of Thrashers and Chicago Wolves players.

Until Jock’s and Jill’s closed, they used to return every year on the anniversary of the day they met and sit at the same table.

They keep returning to Philips Arena for Friday, Saturday and Sunday games. They’ve witnessed a lot of losses but remain loyal, and hopeful.

“It will come,” Deanna said. “I’m not happy with the team, but I love them.”

Win a prize … and a husband

Todd McCarthy told girlfriend Elizabeth Knupp he had won six tickets to last week’s Thrashers game against New Jersey. Actually, he had bought them, but he needed the white lie to explain why he had enough tickets for her to invite her friends to Philips Arena. (He called them first to make sure they knew to say they could make it.)

McCarthy also told Knupp to wear something cute. Remember, he said, my buddy works the Jumbotron and might put us on the big screen. That explanation worked, too.

So everything was in place when Knupp was “picked” to play one of the contests held during a timeout. She had to say whether Home Depot items retail for higher or lower than a given price. At the end of the game, she could keep the items for which she had guessed correctly or trade them for a mystery prize hidden behind one of nine numbers on the scoreboard.

“I looked over at the options and said, ‘I’m not a handy woman. There’s got to be something better on the board,’ ” Knupp said.

“Thank God she did,” McCarthy said.

Knupp picked No. 7 and won … a ring. (Of course, any number would have worked.)

She turned to her left, and there he was, on one knee, ring in hand.

“I was shocked, very happily shocked,” Knupp said. “That’s every girl’s dream. It was perfect for me.”

Knupp, an eighth grade math teacher, says she’s no hockey connoisseur but loves the sport. How much? After accepting the proposal, she told her friends and fiancé she was ready to go back to their seats and watch the rest of the game.

“Everybody looked at me like I was crazy,” Knupp said.

They went out and celebrated, instead.