Stanley Cup celebrations more peaceful than after Super Bowl

A less populated Oakland still managed to throw a party after the Penguins beat the Detroit Red… A less populated Oakland still managed to throw a party after the Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals Friday night, but the celebration was far tamer than the post-Super Bowl riots.

“We had a good night in Oakland,” city police spokeswoman Diane Richard said in an e-mail. “It was all excited revelry, no damage.”

Following the Penguins’ 2-1 victory, an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 people celebrated in Oakland and about 3,000 celebrated in the South Side.

Richard said firefighters responded to two chair fires in Oakland Friday night — one on Semple Street and one on the corner of Meyran Avenue and Sennott Street. They arrested one person for igniting a chair, and it was their only arrest in Oakland.

Police arrested 31 people for failure to disperse in the South Side, where people hoisted aluminum mock-ups of the Stanley Cup and ran through the streets. Police received initial reports of damage near 14th Street, but didn’t find any when they investigated, Richard said.

Following Febuary’s Super Bowl, police arrested at least 100 people — an estimated 60 to 80 of them in Oakland. Students lit Dumpsters on fire, uprooted trees, broke windows to local businesses, climbed light poles and tore down two bus shelters, causing more than $40,000 in damage.

Pitt alumnus Jon Hetts watched Friday night as a chair burned on Semple Street.

“I think it’s fantastic people are burning things,” he said. “I’m so happy I get to watch this. I’ve never done it before.”

Hetts and others screamed in support as three firefighters doused the chair fire. The firefighters laughed as the onlookers screamed, “Pittsburgh prevails,” among other things that are unsuitable for print.

So why do students enjoy watching furniture burn if they will just cheer when firefighters put out the fire?

“It’s like, ‘Why do you enjoy drinking if you’re gonna be hung over in the morning?’ It’s a celebration,” Hetts said.

The same firefighters who responded to the couch fire on Semple Street also responded to one on the corner of Sennott Street and Meyran Avenue shortly after 11 p.m. After they left, some students sat in the wet plaid chair and took pictures until two Pitt police officers arrived, asked them to leave and turned the chair on its side.

Students also lined the corner of South Bouquet Street and Forbes Avenue Friday, but allowed police officers to direct traffic for the most part. They screamed as the cars passing between rows of them honked to signal their support for the Penguins.

“It’s shock and awe,” Andrew Gipe, a University of Maryland student who was visiting the city, said. “It’s giving me an adrenaline rush.”

Pitt students have earned a reputation for celebrating in the streets following major events. They burned couches following Pitt’s victory against West Virginia University in the Backyard Brawl two football seasons ago. Following Barack Obama’s win in the presidential election last November, they ran to the Cathedral of Learning with chants of “O-BAM-A.” And, of course, there was also their reaction to February’s Super Bowl outcome.