This was college hockey at its most extreme!

http://nesn.com/2014/01/coaches-restrained-in-wild-ncaa-ice-hockey-fight-video/

Normally, you only hear about fighting in hockey taking place in the pros-the NHL, & all the "junior" leagues below it-where such activity is actually permitted. The fact that a fight took place during a Saturday night college hockey game, however, is another story entirely! Last year, the 1st installment of what I presume has now become an annual event between Schnectady, N.Y.-based (& #3 in the nation as of last week, for those of you who follow this stuff) Union College & Troy, N.Y.-based Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute took place, & for the most part, that game managed to have the "look & feel" of college & "junior" league hockey both at once (more on that later), given that the city of Albany, the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC), the AHL, & many more parties agreed to let the 2 teams battle it out on neutral ice roughly halfway between both of their respective campuses. (For the record, Union won that game, 3-2, in front of an almost empty upper level & mostly students from the respective schools.) This year's 2nd annual matchup was only slightly different, although I have a feeling everybody involved with getting this game going had anticipated a bigger crowd than last year, since not only did arena staff open a few sections in the upper level (which explains why I was in section 229, which, in that building, is right above center ice, this year, despite being down in 1 of the corners last year), but they also kept all the students downstairs, split roughly half-&-half between both schools! The game itself was quite close considering the 2 teams' records entering the night, as RPI was barely below .500 (9-10-4) whereas Union had just 1 conference loss (& was 16-4-3 overall) all season going in. True to their records, Union struck 1st:

UNI	1	-	0	5x6 SH		Shayne Gostisbehere (7) (unassisted)		8:04

As those of you who follow hockey somewhat often might be able to tell, that goal came shorthanded, which is truly something, considering neither teams' power play units converted anything at all the entire game! 

1st period penalties were as follows:

REN-1 Ryan Haggerty (2-Charging) UNI 0x1

3:20

UNI-1 Mike Vecchione (2-Roughing) REN 0x1

6:58

REN-2 BENCH (2-Too Many Players) (Served by Ryan Haggerty) UNI 0x2		19:52

The 2nd period played out much like the 1st, with both teams seemingly struggling to generate many offensive opportunities, since it seemed as if they were both trying to hang back & shut down the neutral zone instead of attacking. Nevertheless, RPI did even up the contest about a quarter of the way through the period, except for 1 main difference:

REN	1	-	1	6x6		Milos Bubela (4) (Jacob Laliberte/18, Curtis Leonard/8)		5:17

That goal might not have come shorthanded, as Union's did, but after its 1st goal, it seemed as if RPI was even more desperate to find ways to score another 1, & it also seemed as if Union was pinned in its own zone practically the entire rest of the period! As it were, no more goals were scored either way, & the penalty situation was as follows: 

UNI-2 Daniel Ciampini (2-Hooking) REN 0x2

1:51

UNI-3 Matt Hatch (2-Boarding) REN 0x3		10:06

REN-3 Brock Higgs (2-Tripping) UNI 0x3

11:10

REN-4 Guy Leboeuf (2-Boarding) UNI 0x4		12:31

REN-5 Milos Bubela (2-Boarding) UNI 0x5		17:37

The 3rd period saw more of an increase in tension than it did anything else, as both teams decided that getting their "enforcers" out would intimidate their opponents into retreating & just have to withstand an onslaught of scoring opportunities against them. Despite the emphasis on "dirty", "rough", & just overall physical play, there would be a breakthrough that would end up holding up as the game-winner:

REN	2	-	1	6x6	GW LL	Mike Zalewski (5) (Brock Higgs/12, Ryan Haggerty/11)		16:22

Suddenly faced with a 1-goal deficit, the exact same situation into which Union placed RPI last year, the Union coaches decided to (A) call their 1 allotted timeout & (B) pull their goaltender, creating a so-called "empty net" situation for the last 2:21 of the game. From there, Union proceeded to blast RPI from all angles, both possible & seemingly impossible, forcing RPI to use up its timeout with just 24 seconds left in a game that everybody in attendance, myself included, thought would require a little bit of 5-minute overtime just a few minutes earlier! After that 2nd timeout, however, Union just couldn't keep the offensive barrage going as it had between timeouts, & with that, RPI had seemingly claimed victory in the 2nd installment of what appears to be 1 of college hockey's newest rivalries, at least in its current neutral site format! However, there was still more to come after the final buzzer... 

the Union penalties:

UNI-4 Mat Bodie (2-Roughing, 5-FACEMASKING, 10-D.Q. (disqualification))

20:00

UNI-7 Daniel Carr (2-Roughing, 10-M.C. (misconduct))

20:00

UNI-9 Mike Vecchione (also 2-Roughing, 10-M.C.)		20:00

UNI-11 Eli Lichtenwald (5-Fighting, 10-D.Q.)		20:00

the RPI penalties: 

REN-6 Brock Higgs (5-FACEMASKING, 10-game M.C.)

20:00

REN-8 Ryan Haggerty (2-Roughing, 10-M.C.)		20:00

REN-10 Bo Dolan (also 2-Roughing, 10-M.C.)		20:00

REN-12 Mike Zalewski (5-Fighting, 10-D.Q.)		20:00

REN-14 Luke Curadi (also 5-Fighting, 10-D.Q.)		20:00

What made that brawl even uglier, however, was the fact that Union coach Rick Bennett, himself a former (short-lived) NHL player, tried to break through everybody on both teams to get to the RPI bench & start attacking RPI coach Seth Appert (not a former NHL player) & his assistants. To his credit, Union coach Bennett did apologize to everybody involved after the game, according to NESN, which was in town from Boston: 

“I’m actually embarrassed about my actions,” Bennett said. “I apologize to our president, our athletic director, our fans, Garnet Blades members, to the RPI fans, their coaching staff, their players. That’s not how we want to be represented.”

Even though he was not the instigator of the brawl, RPI coach Appert also apologized for his role in those events: 

“I’d like to apologize for that end of the game [incident],” Appert said. “These are two heated rivals that have had some of these incidents, but we have a tremendous amount of respect for Union. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Rick Bennett and his coaching staff. When you play in a heated rivalry game, sometimes things boil over. But that’s not the way we want to be portrayed at all. I know they don’t either.”

Needless to say, a few suspensions followed, with the most notable being that Union itself suspended coach Bennett 4 games for his postgame antics, & with all that out of the way, it's time for me to tell you people some of what I found odd during the rest of the game! 

- SEPARATION ANXIETY? The bands were relegated to their own upper level sections above opposite ends of the seating area, & it seemed as if very few of either school's band members took the bus(es) with their teams & students to the game! 

- MIXED (ATTENDANCE) SIGNALS: Last year's attendance was closer to 5,000 than anything else, hence why the upper level was closed off entirely except for the bands, but this year, I guess some people somewhere somehow involved with the game must have anticipated a larger crowd, since some sections in the 220s (again, roughly between the 2 blue lines, & thus, right above center ice) were opened up to accommodate the few non-students (well, there were a few students up top in my section) who decided to show up to this year's installment of the rivalry!

- N.Y./ONTARIO STRONG: Most of the players in the 2 starting lineups were from either N.Y, or the Canadian province of Ontario, but, as always, there were a few exceptions to that general rule, as 1 of the Union starters was announced as being from somewhere in my home state of N.J., & 1 of the RPI starters was announced as being from Florida, which had me wondering what could have possibly brought them up the N.Y.S. Thruway to their respective schools! 

- SPEAKING OF CANADA, FROM CANADA: Those of you who follow broadcasting to enough of an extent probably know the practice of "DXing"; that is, picking up radio signals that would normally be cut off by the combination of interference from other, more local stations, atmospheric conditions, & lesser signal strength during the daylight hours... Well, that practice became useful Saturday night, as CKGM AM in Montréal, Quèbec, otherwise known as TSN 690, came in more & more clearly as the ride up the Thruway progressed! Upon entering downtown Albany, however, the station seemed to disappear behind the presence of other, more local stations very close to it on your typical radio dial, so it was interesting getting a Canadian perspective on all things hockey for a few minutes Saturday night!

- RECORDING, SCHMECORDING: I know most people, at least publicly, claim to prefer anything but recorded so-called "top 40" music, to even more of an extent during sporting events than any other situations, such as shopping, dining out, or working, but I, for 1, have come to accept the presence of such playlists during any sporting events played in such settings, whether the building's home team is in action, or a neutral site game such as the 1 described in this post is taking place. Last year, the 2 bands seemed to split the time about evenly, with the arena's sound crew occasionally playing pre-recorded music, but this year, I don't know whether or not the producers simply took the night off or what, since the 2 bands did approximately 99% of the music playing during this year's game! Next year, presuming the end-of-game brawl doesn't end up (no pun intended) prematurely ending (still no pun intended) this series after just 2 games, I would prefer that the arena's in-house producers & sound people give the bands a slight break from their playing duties, especially if the game ends up being as close (&, more importantly, entertaining) as the 1st 2 games were!

- WHAT'S NEXT? The NCAA East Regional in Bridgeport, CT, the last weekend of March (28 & 29, to be exact), & the Frozen Four in Philadelphia, PA 2 weeks later, each only about 1 1/2-2 hours away from my hometown!