While the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers battle it out for the Stanley Cup, the St. Louis Blues have spent the playoffs on the sidelines. The team’s absence hasn’t impacted Farilyn Hale’s love of the game.

Hale, 71, is a self-admitted Blues super-fan and she’s giving thanks to the NHL and hockey for an assist in finding her fiancé. She’s been going to Blues games since the team’s inaugural 1967-68 season. Hale, a widow, had been looking for companionship on J-Date, an online dating service that caters to Jewish singles, but she discovered there wasn’t a deep bench of local Jewish bachelors.

“So I was looking online and I saw this picture that Ken Berger had posted of himself with the Stanley Cup and his son,” said Hale, a member of Congregation Shaare Emeth. “But he’s from Philadelphia and they were wearing Tampa Bay Lightning jerseys.”

Berger, 71, is a widower and a Philadelphia Flyers fan. His son Jason was one of the equipment managers for the 2020 and 2021 Stanley Cup champs, the Lightning. Hale and Berger hit it off immediately. In spite of their different team allegiances and the 925 miles from St. Louis to Philly, they had instant chemistry and successfully navigated a long-distance relationship.

“Our record was a six-hour call,” Berger said. “We just had so much in common.”

But hockey was the subject that sealed the deal. They are planning an Aug. 3 wedding.

“It’s all because of Lord Stanley,” said Hale. “When I saw Ken with the Stanley Cup, I said, ‘Well, obviously he’s a hockey fan!’”

Hale is a longtime volunteer for National Council of Jewish Women-St. Louis. Berger, a retired pharmacist, recently moved to St. Louis and is getting acclimated to seeing St. Louis Blues insignia everywhere. He remains loyal to his old team and in the event of a Flyers-Blues playoff matchup next year, he’d root for the Broad Street Bullies.

If the two teams did meet in the playoffs, Hale said, “I’d definitely root for the Blues.”