'This is the best wedding ever': Couple airs Maple Leafs win on their wedding night

A newlywed couple celebrated their wedding day on the same night the Toronto Maple Leafs beat Tampa Bay and clinched their spot in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Chantel and Vincent Andreacchi told CTV News Toronto they first met about eight years ago at a library at the University of Toronto in Mississauga.

Both have been lifelong fans of the Leafs, and even attended four away games together against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, and the franchise’s upcoming playoff rivals, the Florida Panthers.

The couple got engaged in March 2021, and booked their venue at the Venetian Banquet Hall in Woodbridge, Ont. shortly after.

“At the time [we were] booking it, the Leafs were not on our radar,” Vincent said.

A month before, however, Vince said he started to get “this sneaking suspicion that it was going to be an important game.”

They spoke with the emcee and the entertainment company they hired for their wedding day to talk about what could be done in the event the Leafs are playing an important playoff game.

“It has to be on the screens, we have to have it playing for our guests,” Vince said.

“Just because the reality of the situation is, if it’s not on our screens, people are gonna be watching it on their phones, and we might as well make an event out of it rather than having people secluded at tables or in the bathroom or in a lobby trying to huddle and watch the game.”

@paigemmcphee best wedding present for vince & chantel! and a night to remember for everyone lol @Toronto Maple Leafs #goleafsgo #leafsnation ♬ You Make My Dreams (Come True) - Daryl Hall & John Oates

Chantel says they found out the Leafs were going into Game 6 during their rehearsal dinner, as they watched the team lose 2-4.

Since Game 6 was going to be on the same night as their wedding, some wedding guests wondered if the Leafs would be up on screens that night.

“We were all sort of thinking about it, being like, ‘I can see them doing that, but I’m not sure, I’m not sure,’” Paige McPhee, one of the guests, told CTV News Toronto, adding reception hour started at around 5:30 p.m., and the “clock to the game was ticking down.”

“It’s around a bit after 7, and the monitors just lit up. They went from Vincent and Chantel to live game footage, and everyone was, I think, pretty happy to see that game come on [...] and that it was a part of the wedding without taking away from the special, the fun, and the love of the evening.”

The emcee updated the crowd throughout the night on what the score was, and when the Leafs won in overtime, they cued up Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation – which not only was the walkout song for the groomsmen but was also the walkout song for the Leafs decades ago.

“Don’t get me wrong, when we had speeches or father-daughter dance, or something that was important – the game went off,” Vince said. “We did our best to try to time it.”

When the Leafs won in overtime, with team captain John Tavares shooting the winning puck in net, the newlyweds remember the reception being “madness.”

“One of our guests ran across the room and jumped into me, and he’s like, ‘This is the best wedding ever,’” Vince said.

The last time the Toronto Maple Leafs made it to the second round of the playoffs was 19 years ago, in 2004.

While the Andreacchis don’t have any game-night superstition-fuelled traditions, Vince did joke about making one.

“I have been making the joke today that Chantel and I will get a temporary divorce and redo the wedding,” he said.

“No comment,” Chantel replied.

The newlyweds are off for their honeymoon in Italy this Thursday, but the Leafs hit the ice against the Florida Panthers Tuesday night at 7 p.m.