This past weekend, I returned to Bridgeport, CT, via Manhattan, on what started as an ugly, wet Saturday, to take in the start of something that many people around here hope ends up becoming a "staple" of college hockey - the "Connecticut Ice" tournament, featuring many "youth" games, all leading up to, at least this year, Quinnipiac v. UConn, and Sacred Heart v. Yale; the biggest problem, though, was a lack of "neutral sites" for the tournament - Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, and UConn all have venues that are, certainly, big enough to host something on that level, but the Danbury Ice Arena, mostly a minor-league venue, is too small, and the Mohegan Sun Arena in the eastern part of the state has never hosted hockey, and I don't think was even built to accommodate the sport, so that left the Webster Bank Arena in the "Harbor Yard" section of Bridgeport, in which all four teams have at least built up a bit of "history" in terms of having played there previously, either as the "road" team against Fairfield (Fairfield, naturally/Shelton, CT) or Sacred Heart, when pretty much all teams there except Yale were at a more "minor" level within college hockey, or, especially for Yal
The first game, again, featured Quinnipiac and UConn, and started out fairly evenly, and in a "physical" fashion that would remain the case throughout the game, with UConn opening the scoring courtesy of a rebound almost exactly five minutes into the game; it only took 18 seconds and the next face-off (excluding the ones immediately following goals, obviously) for Quinnipiac to answer, though, and Quinnipiac would take its first lead of the afternoon/evening a few minutes after that, when it managed to get a bit of a "breakaway" chance; the game would once again become tied late in the frame, however, as Quinnipiac's majority in the "puck possession" department suddenly betrayed it, specific
The middle 20 minutes saw Quinnipiac pull back to about "even" in terms of shots on goal initially, and get rewarded with the lead slightly under halfway through, by which point in time the game had suddenly started turning into one "scrum" after another, one of the first of which would produce the next leading goal for Quinnipiac, which would remain the only goal through the rest of the period, albeit not before a rather ugly bit of high-sticking by somebody in yellow, which, after a rather lengthy video review, was determined to not have "drawn blood" and, thus, remain "minor", as hockey media/officials seemingly always refer to in such situations...
The final period saw no scoring, but made up for it in terms of "physicality" and "scrums" both ways, albeit with UConn suddenly "surging" by then in hopes of finding another "equalizer"; unfortunately for UConn, not even that, or the "extra-man" situation late would end up working, as Quinnipiac took its mid-second period goal the rest of the way, and ended up winning, 3-2, sending the UConn "student section" gathered in the bottom half or so of section 114 back home disappointed, while pleasing the skating
The hour or so between QU-UConn and SHU-Yale seemingly took forever, perhaps 'cause I spent it wandering the only concourse of a building that still feels "stuck" back around the time it opened (2001), although I'm afraid such a "cramped" arrangement was the best outcome a place as "maligned", to say the very least, as Bridgeport could produce with such a large venue...
The start of the second game of the day went entirely in Sacred Heart's favor, with not dozens, but, rather, hundreds, for once, of red-clad fans celebrating multiple goals by their team early on - the first came roughly three minutes in, after a very early Yale penalty, the second followed a little under a couple minutes later, as SHU took advantage of a shot that went noticeably wide of goal by somebody on Yale, to be able to take the puck back the other way, follo
It would be a play somewhat similar to the one that ended the scoring for Sacred Heart back near the end of the first period to finally give the "navy blue" men from Yale just about the only bit of "hope" they would have the entire night early in the second period, as Yale capitalized on a "man advantage", but, after that, the momentum returned to Sacred Heart, which, despite having had a goal disallowed due to the puck having been kicked into the net, still regained its four-goal advantage late in the period, finding just enough room between many skates and into the net near the end of a major penalty against Yale; the period would end at that margin on the scoreboard, as Sacred Heart would lead 5-1 after 40!
Goals would come for both teams in the last of six total periods of hockey in Bridgeport, CT, this past Saturday, with Sacred Heart notching its last goal of the night on the heels of a play similar to the 4-0 goal, albeit entirely in front of the net this time, to make it 6-1, and Yale would get a "fluky" goal very late in the game to end it by a final scoreline of 6-2 for Sacred Heart!
images; obligatory "shoutout", also, to P.C. Richard & Son, the consumer appliance/electronics store chain which (A) sponsored the games this past weekend, and (B) had its "whistle" sound played after the announcements recapping most of the goals, so there was, indeed, quite a bit of "whistling" in Bridgeport, CT, this past weekend;
Sacred Heart is, apparently, finally, building its own arena on-campus by fall '22, in an announcement made just prior to the game, truly making the Webster Bank Arena the "neutral site" it wasn't quite this time around, considering Sacred Heart has easily become the "home" team there, with UConn having played a few games there, and Yale having put together a few "regionals" while Quinnipiac has largely yet to play "home" games there; as mentioned, the Sacred Heart band made the trip over from Fairfield, CT, to Bridgeport, and Sacred Heart had its usual public address announcer, on top of, obviously, playing in its usual home rink, at least for now, so that part seemed a little unfair to both Yale (Saturday night) and Quinnipiac (Sunday night)...)
(SUNDAY FINAL SCORES: Yale 3, UConn 2; Sacred Heart 4, Quinnipiac 1)
Personally, I enjoyed this inaugural "doubleheader" on its own, but I'd still suggest some changes
In other hockey-related topics, there's this blog post I literally just found yesterday
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