Married to the Game

For New York Islanders Season Ticket Members, it takes a lot to miss a game, let alone
the first-ever playoff game at UBS Arena
. However, Michael Santoli and Oksana Romashenko had a pretty valid reason.
Santoli and Romashenko got married on Friday, so while they couldn't bring their wedding to the Islanders game, the Islanders game made an appearance at their wedding.
"The game is going to be on the TV's," Santoli said before the wedding. "We're all going to go wild, it's going to be an intense game."

Their love story began in the workplace, as the two met as bartenders and eventually began dating. Santoli was outwardly a huge sports fan, always making sure the customers at the bar were exposed to his favorite teams.
"I was in charge of the TV," Santoli said with a laugh. "I'm a huge Islanders and [New York] Jets fan, so those games were always on the TVs whenever I had the chance."
Santoli grew up in Hicksville, just a few minutes away from Nassau Coliseum. He spent his childhood going to Islanders games and developing his love of the sport.
Before the couple first started dating, Santoli knew that Romashenko was familiar with hockey, from growing up in Ukraine, but wasn't sure of the extent of her interest until they attended a game together for one of their first dates in 2018.

"I remember thinking... maybe she likes hockey? Maybe she's an Islanders fan? But after going to that game, I saw her love of hockey from the way she celebrated the goals," he said. "It was great."
That initial Islanders game at the Coliseum was just the beginning.
"I asked her if she wanted to do this again, to go the Coliseum often to see the Islanders," Santoli recalled. "We knew we wanted to be here all the time."
They've been Season Ticket Members ever since.
The Islanders became an important part of their relationship. Naturally, the couple has friends and family members that love the team as much as they do.
"We have a table full of Season Ticket Members," Santoli said. "A lot of our guests let us know that they'll be at our wedding - but they'll be thinking about and rooting for the Islanders the whole time - they're so aware of this."
Instead of a plain guest book that most couples have at their wedding, Santoli and Romashenko had a creative idea for their intimate wedding with their family members and closest friends. They had custom jerseys made - a road white and a reverse-retro fisherman jersey with their last name "Santoli" - displayed for their guests to sign.
"It's more than a signature," Santoli said. "We want our families to sign those jerseys because they are our teammates, they helped bring us together. It's so meaningful to us because we want to hang those jerseys in our house. Because it's more than a signature, our family is our team."

In addition to the presence of their fellow die-hard Islanders fans at their wedding to celebrate, the couple had extra special guests in attendance as Oksana's parents, Yaroslav and Maria Romashenko, flew into the country from Ukraine to attend their wedding.
The process of obtaining a visa for her parents to visit the United States wasn't easy, but the couple carefully planned their big day around her parents' rare opportunity to stay for a week.
It's been a long road for the family, as it's been 13 years since Romashenko was able to see her parents in-person. Turning that wish into reality was pretty special for the couple on their big day.
The reunion was heartwarming to say the least.
"It was so emotional," Romashenko said. "I was so happy to see them again. My mom... she last saw me when I was a teenager. And now I'm grown up and getting married. I'm very, very emotional."
The reunion also marked the first time Santoli met his in-laws, which is typically an intimidating experience for anyone. However, their shared passion for the Islanders eased the pressure of an important first impression for Santoli, which coincidentally lined up with Game Two.
"We picked them up from the airport on Wednesday night]," Santoli said. "I put the game on my phone so that they can watch it in the backseat while I drove, and I had it on the
[radio
too. When the Islanders scored, her mom was clapping and cheering so loud."
For Romashenko, the weeks leading up to her wedding and her parents' arrival had been a whirlwind of emotions, but she couldn't be more excited for her big day.
"With all this wedding preparation and my parents coming, I feel so happy and nervous at the same time," she said. "So many emotions I can't even describe."

Hockey is also a part of Romashenko's relationship with her parents and goes all the way back to her upbringing in Ukraine.
"My father loves hockey," Romashenko said. "I remember growing up, he watched hockey on TV all the time in Ukraine, he loved that. I've always shared the experience with him."
Romashenko took that passion with her when she immigrated to the United States over a decade ago and still bonds over the sport with her father to this day.
"I always tell him about the games I go to," she said. "He knows so much about the Islanders by now. He always asks so many questions about UBS Arena]. He asks about what it looks like and how many people are there. He's so excited for us that we get to go."
Talking about sports and the Islanders specifically is an outlet for Romashenko's parents as they deal with the daily and grim realities of living in a country that's been at war for over a year.
"Oksana talks to her father just about every day," Santoli said. "I think that's his time to not really think about what's going on. To see how we're doing, take interest in what we're taking interest in, right? To just catch up and talk about hockey."
On Friday, it all came together for Santoli and Romashenko, who were surrounded by the people they love and with the team they love playing in the background of their wedding. While they wish they could've also been in-person for Game Three,
[the Islanders win
made a heck of a wedding present.