Friday Night Hockey Roundup

Part 1 of our great hockey experiment concluded yesterday. Game 1 was between the two "U of M's" -- Minnessota and UMass. You could call this game a defensive struggle although I would better describe it as boring. The passing was really bad, and there were no goals until 1:30 left in the entire game! Minnessota finally got one goal, and I think everyone in the stands was cheering.

During the 1 hour intermission between games, Frank and I enjoyed our fine coffee beverages (cappuccino and breve respectively), while watching the Zamboni machines. Other people had brought papers, books, etc. to entertain themselves during this long time between games.

The second game was played by UAA and Canisius (Buffalo, NY school).

Aside: Right before the game, I was blessed by a pair of tweener girls with megaphones who decided to sit next to me, and a 7 year old boy sitting behind me to kick my chair. Of course, the parents sat as far away from the girls as possible, knowing what was coming next. For some reason, the likelihood of tweener girls sitting next to me at any event seems to be high -- I believe this is a karmic punishment for being a tweener girl myself long ago. So, the entire game involved listening to the girls hoot silly things/sing bad songs through megaphones in my ear, while I get kicked in the back by a young boy. Lovely.

Back to the game. As the home school, UAA has many rituals for game preparation. Some of these are pretty normal, like the cheezy bulls music with the dimming of the lights thing. Some are not, like the limo that was driven onto the ice surrounded by "secret service agents" (I suspected that the president was not going to hop out of a car at center ice, even in AK). The mascot, Spirit the Seawolf, hopped out of the car to much applause, waving a US flag, and the crowd went nuts. The other odd ritual is the fish thrown on the rink for the first Seawolf goal. Only in AK :).

UAA has already had a particularly eventful season. One of the star forwards was hit in a biking accident in the Czech Republic and waking up from a coma only days before training started, but he is "OK" now apparently. We also lost one star defensemen, whose jaw was broken by the captain of the team, who was put in jail during training. Apparently, the defensemen's absence during a 5am run was "causing too much trouble" on the team, warranting a fist in the teeth? But that as well is OK now, and the captain has been reinstated, although he was punished "severely" by having to give up his captainship. The defensemen, of course, is not back yet because his jaw has been wired shut.

So, back to the game :). The game was between the UAA Seawolves and the Canisius Universitiy's Golden Griffins (this is a flying lion, not a flying monkey as I thought from looking at the picture on the uniforms). UAA's particularly violent team showed it's enthusiasm early by getting a penalty for checking in the back in the first minute of the game. This set the stage for most of the game, which was riddled with fights, hard checking, and other penalties. Both teams passed much better, but UAA's goalie was the weak link, letting easy shots through while blocking much harder shots. The game wound up tied 3-3 (NCAA Rules), but a shootout was required for Tournament play. We were all really worried, because our goalie had been particularly flakey throughout the game, but he hung on and we won by one shot!

So tonight, we have Canisius vs. UMass for the consolation game, and Minnessota vs. UAA for the title. If the 'wolves play like they did yesterday (and perhaps switch the goalie), I think we might win!