April 13, 2005

By Elliot Olshansky

CSTV.com

Well, the 2004-05 season is officially in the books, and I'm sorry to see it go.  It's been one heck of a ride crisscrossing the Northeast all season long, although I didn't know just how much of a ride until earlier this week, when I sat down and looked at the numbers.  And what numbers they were.  So, here they are, the vital - and not-so-vital - statistics on my trip through the 2004-05 season.

Total number of games attended: 53 (29 Men, 24 Women)

Number of overtime games: 10. Two of these games had five minute overtimes, and ended in ties.  The rest were either playoff or playoff-style overtimes, which made things interesting when I was trying to get from one game to another in the same day.

Number of men's teams seen: 30 (Air Force, American International, Army, Bemidji State, Bentley, Boston College, Boston University, Brown, Clarkson, Colgate, UConn, Cornell, Dartmouth, Denver, Harvard, Holy Cross, Maine, UMass, UMass-Lowell, Mercyhurst, Merrimack, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Northeastern, Princeton, Providence, Quinnipiac, Rensselaer, Robert Morris, Yale)

Number of women's teams seen: 17 (Boston College, Brown, Colgate, UConn, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Mercyhurst, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Princeton, Providence, Quinnipiac, St. Lawrence, Wisconsin, Yale)

Men's Team Seen Most Often:  Boston College, with 6 games.  I drove through a hellacious snowstorm to get to Yale to see the Eagles on January 11, wondering how many times I would get a chance to see a top-five team while bouncing back and forth between New Haven, Princeton, West Point, and Northford.  That was before I saw them at home against Northeastern, twice in the Beanpot, at home in the Hockey East playoffs against UMass-Amherst, and in the East Regional for their season-ending loss to North Dakota.  Well, if you're going to see a team six times in four different buildings, it may as well be a good team, and the Hockey East champs certainly qualify.

Women's Team Seen Most Often:  Dartmouth (6 games).  For my alma mater, I was there at the beginning, and I was there at the end.  I took in the Big Green's first three games (wins over BC, Princeton and Yale), returned to Hanover for the team's win over Minnesota (one of only two times the national champs tasted defeat this season), and saw the team's final two games, losses to Minnesota and St. Lawrence at the Frozen Four.  Again, there are worse teams to see six times in a year.

Number of Arenas: 13 (Northford Ice Pavilion, Mark E. Freitas Ice Arena, Tate Rink, Thompson Arena, Walter Brown Arena, Hobey Baker Rink, Ingalls Rink, Conte Forum, FleetCenter, Harry Agganis Arena, Whittemore Center, Mullins Center, DCU Center)

Arena Visited Most Often:  Ingalls Rink.  I also took in nine games, at the Northford Ice Pavilion (home of the Quinnipiac Bobcats), but that included a pair of back-to-back games on the same trip (Bentley-Air Force and Quinnipiac-AIC in the Q-Cup).  I made nine separate trips to the "Yale Whale," which isn't bad, since it's one of my favorite venues.  The same, sadly, cannot be said for the NIP, although the community rink's snack bar does top a lot of arena concession stands in terms of variety, price and quality.

Skating Mascots:  I saw five mascots on ice this year, led by Rhett, the lovable mascot of the BU Terriers.  Rhett just seems to have a lot more creativity and energy than a lot of other mascots -- although Minnesota's Goldy the Gopher certainly delivers in that category as well (Goldy needs to learn to stay up on his skates, though).  I would be remiss if I did not give special mention to Quinnipiac's Boomer the Bobcat, who did the "Stray Cat Strut" on the ice at the NIP.  BC's Baldwin the Eagle is musically inclined, occasionally borrowing a trumpet from a BC band member, and Northeastern's Husky mascot, so far as I can tell, does not have a name.

Imitation Is the Most Sincere Form Of Flattery:  At the Hockey East Women's Semifinals, held at BU's Walter Brown Arena, a group of UNH fans made an impression for me when, upon arrival, they immediately headed for Section 8, traditional home of the Terriers' rowdy student section.  What's more, they set up their own version of the "Goalie/Sieve" banner that used to hang above the south goal.  "Hey, we're the home team," one of them explained.  Unfortunately for the Wildcat fans, their team wasn't able to channel the success that the real home team had enjoyed there, as UConn stunned UNH with a 5-4 overtime victory.

Prime Time Performer:  I've never met Yale goalie Matt Modelski, but he always seems to know when I'm in the house.  His .890 save percentage skyrocketed to .954 when I was at the game, including a mind-blowing 49-save effort in a 1-0 loss to BC.  And I wondered why the folks at Yale were always so happy to see me ...

Open Mouth, Insert Foot: During the third period of the Wisconsin-Quinnipiac women's game on January 8, a gentleman wearing a Minnesota hat made his way into the Northford Ice Pavilion press box, and started setting up a video camera.  When asked if he was shooting the game for Minnesota, he explained that he was there for the high school game that was up next at the NIP, then added, "I doubt Minnesota is all that worried about Wisconsin."  The look on the face of Wisconsin's sports information director upon hearing this defies description, as does the look on the face of the Gophers fan when told about the Badgers' 15-4-1 record and No. 4 national ranking at the time.

Tough Penalty Kill:  I don't think I'll ever forget the penalty kill Army had against Holy Cross early in the second period of their November 19 game. The trouble started when goalkeeper Treye Kettwick lost his stick.  Right after one of the Army forwards gave Kettiwick his own stick, another Black Knight lost his stick, leaving the PK unit with two stickless skaters and a goalie using a forward's stick.  Fortunately, for the Knights, captain Chad Fifield was able to corral the puck and knock it out of play, saving the day and allowing Kettwick to hold on for his first career shutout, right in front of the Superintendent of the Academy and the Army Chief of Staff.

Best Student Section:  Boston University.  While I love the brand-new Agganis Arena, I definitely count myself lucky to have experienced a home game at Walter Brown Arena, and seen Section 8 in all its glory.  Also, while doing interviews with BU students at the Beanpot, I felt the concrete of the FleetCenter's upper tier shake beneath my feet as the Terrier faithful jumped up and down all around me.

Best Road Fans:  Cornell.  The "Lynah Faithful" made a huge impression on me when I saw them away from their home rink, led by one of the best - and most savvy - hockey bands in the country.  After the Big Red went up 3-0 on Yale - becoming the only team to rout Yale and Matt Modelski with me in attendance - the fans and band chanted "We Want Richter." The Wisconsin and New York Rangers legend, who's currently taking classes at Yale, wasn't in attendance that night, so far as I know, but it was definitely a nice touch.

Best Pep Band:  As good as Cornell is - lots of tradition, a good sense of humor, and a well balanced instrumentation that results in a good sound - BU gets the nod here.  The Terrier job does a great job of working with the rest of the student section, and it shows with the way some of BU's most popular chants are synchronized to the band's music.  Honorable mention goes to RPI - "America's Pep Band" - for their varied repertoire of songs and taunts, and the Yale band, for a full-length arrangement of "Hey Jude."

Best Press Meal:  The FleetCenter, obviously, takes great care of the media, but it's a pro building, so it doesn't count (those pre-Beanpot meals were delicious, though).  Boston University is great - and I'm going to miss the coffee cake made by Ed Carpenter's wife almost as much as I'll miss the fantastic job Ed has done as BU's sports information director (although, my diet can do without those carbs, which I'm supposed to avoid anyway).  Still, the folks at UNH's Whittemore Center served the best meal of the season before the final of the Women's Frozen Four: Chicken, two or three different salads, soup, all kinds of good stuff.  Sitting next to Wildcats head coach Brian McCloskey while I ate it certainly didn't hurt, either.  There are perks to all this travel, besides the great hockey I saw.

Best Regular Season Women's Game:  Yale 3, Harvard 2 on November 12.  Yale hadn't beaten Harvard in almost 20 years, and the Bulldogs were ready to snap the streak.  Senior captain Erin Duggan scored the eventual game-winner in the middle of the third period, and junior netminder Sarah Love played a phenomenal game, stopping 48 of 50 shots for one of the most emotional wins I had the pleasure of seeing all year.

Best Regular Season Men's Game: Boston University 3, Northeastern 2, Beanpot final, February 14.  The Terriers came out hot and went up 2-0, but started to let up, and you could almost tell that a Husky comeback was in the works.  Keni Gibson was a rock in net for the Huskies, and a late goal by Jared Mudryk sent it to overtime.  As the legendary Jack Parker said, if the game hadn't gone to overtime, the Terriers wouldn't have deserved to win, but BU gave a great effort in overtime, and seeing Chris Bourque slam home the rebound of Bryan Miller's shot to win the game was one of the greatest sports moments I've ever witnessed in person.  Best of luck to Chris in the pros, but I'm going to miss him in the college game, largely because of moments like that one.

Best Postseason Women's Game: Minnesota 4, Harvard 3, NCAA Championship, March 27.  It was my seventh game in a span of 50 hours, and it was a great way to end a season on the road.  The Crimson and the Gophers traded goals in a great back-and-forth, give-and-take game.  It was the kind of game that makes you sorry that someone has to lose, because everyone who stepped on the ice played like a champion.

Best Postseason Men's Game:  New Hampshire 3, Harvard 2, NCAA East Regional Semifinal, March 26.  For 75 minutes, the irresistible force of UNH's offense met the immovable object of Dov Grumet-Morris, Noah Welch and the Harvard defense.  Harvard looked like a winner in the second period when Alex Meintel gave Harvard a 2-1 lead with his first career goal, a mere eight seconds after Sean Collins had tied it for the Wildcats.  In the third, as UNH frantically tried to come back, I wondered if Grumet-Morris would ever let another goal slip by.  In fact, he let in two more, but not before earning the respect of everyone in the Mullins Center, especially since the game-winning goal by Daniel Winnik was scored on a picture-perfect play.  I was kind of annoyed while this game was going on, since the overtime kept me from getting to Worcester in time for the start of BC vs. North Dakota, but looking back, I remember what a tremendous game it was, and how glad I was to be able to take it all in.

Wow, it sure was an amazing season to cover.  Thanks to all the players, coaches, sports info directors, and everyone else who made it possible.  And hey, there's only about six months until I head back out on the road for another year!