(I'M BACK!)
After months of not doing anything here, since I considered myself "fresh out of ideas", I figured I would post something that I had already "jotted down" elsewhere, to hopefully "refresh" myself for this upcoming year!
Anyway, I'll just skip those "formalities" and tell you a bit about what happened during Cornell v. New Hampshire @ MSG the last Saturday night of November - first off, that there was absolutely nobody in the building, seemingly, when the first few fans got let inside around 7 P.M. - very few concession stands open, for starters, and basically only the security guards in each section... The game itself, on the other hand, which saw mostly Cornell fans taking over the building, instead of a more "neutral" environment, with more New Hampshire fans, although they arguably had the easier trip, from their campus in Durham, NH, to elsewhere in the state, to Boston, and finally to Penn Station, instead of being roughly halfway between everywhere in NY state/OH/PA, as Cornell's campus is, almost requiring people to travel via road to some other location upstate to reach public transit, saw NH take the first 8 shots of the game before scoring, only to see Cornell match that total while tying the game a few minutes later, and turned into an absolute "shooting gallery" in the 2nd period, as NH got off another consecutive bunch of shots, only to see all of those shots get stopped, which, ironically, ended up being more shots than they got during a 5-against-3 advantage in the 3rd period, which later turned into a 4-against-3 situation, and finally to a Cornell man advantage, during which they notched what would end up being the game-winning goal, as NH couldn't quite muster up as many shots as they did during the first 40 minutes, when they had bunches of chances to retake the lead, yet just couldn't convert on their multiple bombardments of the Cornell defense... Ironically, in checking the stat lines before the game, Cornell's PK was supposed to have done the opposite - they had only made it through one other entire game
After months of not doing anything here, since I considered myself "fresh out of ideas", I figured I would post something that I had already "jotted down" elsewhere, to hopefully "refresh" myself for this upcoming year!
Anyway, I'll just skip those "formalities" and tell you a bit about what happened during Cornell v. New Hampshire @ MSG the last Saturday night of November - first off, that there was absolutely nobody in the building, seemingly, when the first few fans got let inside around 7 P.M. - very few concession stands open, for starters, and basically only the security guards in each section... The game itself, on the other hand, which saw mostly Cornell fans taking over the building, instead of a more "neutral" environment, with more New Hampshire fans, although they arguably had the easier trip, from their campus in Durham, NH, to elsewhere in the state, to Boston, and finally to Penn Station, instead of being roughly halfway between everywhere in NY state/OH/PA, as Cornell's campus is, almost requiring people to travel via road to some other location upstate to reach public transit, saw NH take the first 8 shots of the game before scoring, only to see Cornell match that total while tying the game a few minutes later, and turned into an absolute "shooting gallery" in the 2nd period, as NH got off another consecutive bunch of shots, only to see all of those shots get stopped, which, ironically, ended up being more shots than they got during a 5-against-3 advantage in the 3rd period, which later turned into a 4-against-3 situation, and finally to a Cornell man advantage, during which they notched what would end up being the game-winning goal, as NH couldn't quite muster up as many shots as they did during the first 40 minutes, when they had bunches of chances to retake the lead, yet just couldn't convert on their multiple bombardments of the Cornell defense... Ironically, in checking the stat lines before the game, Cornell's PK was supposed to have done the opposite - they had only made it through one other entire game
(I mean, Lake Placid is still much closer to Cornell, but I'd say, having stopped there once upon my first "return trip" from Montreal way back when, that it's about halfway between the Canadian (Quebec) border and their campus...)
highlights/images/recap:
http://www.cornellbigred.com/n
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
(P.S.: a few "pointers" re: public transport in case you find yourself, or somebody/some people you know headed over there anytime soon: if you end up somewhere that usually goes from Hoboken instead of Penn Station (including the line here on campus, which goes from/to both stations), I'd say you should take the PATH trains from either 33rd Street, or the WTC downtown, to Hoboken, and then transfer at Secaucus if need be, in order to return home, since Penn Station has inexplicably always made people wait until about 10 minutes before departure to start boarding, and on top of that, recently, they've had this "robotic female voice" making seemingly the vast majority of the arrival/departure announcements there, and in very general terms, although when the live announcers in this little "booth" up above the concourse make those announcements, they almost always announce almost all of the stations along whichever line(s), instead of just mentioning "intermediate stops" along the way, like that stupid "robotic voice"... When it comes to getting into Manhattan, earlier on during whichever day, by all means, feel free to go through Penn Station, since those trains don't have the same "time constraints", but when returning, do follow that bit of advice if you don't like being subjected to those "constraints"...)
...well, by now, you know that I attended Cornell v. New Hampshire the last weekend of November, and had planned to follow that up by attending (#3/4 - 2 sets of polls involved here) Boston College v. (#8/9) North Dakota, which made its first-ever visit to this area, in fact! Now, personally, given that B.C. is only about 4/5 hours away from here, and N.D. is at least 22 hours away, basically meaning that anybody looking to get here from there basically has to fly in, I always expected more B.C. fans to fill the Garden, and, lo and behold, I saw only B.C. fans on the way in, but once I arrived at MSG, it looked like mostly N.D. fans had showed up... Quite unlike last weekend's game, however, there was much more of a "split" among the fans, considering, again, the proximity of each team to Manhattan, and also the fact that MSG and the teams themselves basically promoted the game as a "neutral-site" contest - only the designations of "home" and "road" team seemed to differentiate things, even though the NCHC (where N.D. plays its conference games) organized the event! Adding on to that, also, the building played commercials promoting both schools multipl
Once the game got started, however, those nerves didn't seem to stop during the 1st period, as both teams mostly traded shots throughout the opening 20 minutes, although despite that, B.C. still ended up with almost double the shot total, almost, but not quite, reaching double digits... After that, however, the scoring started, as N.D. recognized just where it was, seemingly, and outshot B.C. during the middle frame, yet mostly relied on a few "nifty moves" to break out to a 2-0 lead after those 20 minutes - first, an "odd man rush"-turned-2-against-1 opportunity, and all it took was connecting on one little "point-blank" pass right in front of B.C.'s goaltender to open the scoring, followed by a backhand "center" from the near corner (from where I was sitting, at least), which turned into two more "point-blank" whacks
Earlier, I mentioned how the fan "makeup", or at least my expectations of it, went from mostly B.C. pregame, to mostly N.D. later, and then remained that way, even to the point where some N.D. fans showed up in what were supposed to have been B.C.'s "fan sections" down below! On top of that, I found it - not that I didn't expect it coming in - very weird to hear what has become most famous in recent years as the Chicago Blackhawks' "goal song", but, indeed, that is apparently what N.D. plays at home, so, in that case, why not bring it along with them to MSG? B.C., on the other hand, simply stuck "closer to home", as it not only brought its band along, but played what I imagine to be its, or one of its, "fight song(s)" after their trio of goals on the night... As for the few of us "neutrals" in the crowd, well, there were mostly other "northeastern U.S." NHL teams represented, along with a few of the N.D. fans (not neutral, but you get the idea...) wearing the colors of the aforementioned Chicago Blackhawks, or one in particular I noticed walking in who was wearing their special "St. Patrick's Day green" tops, even! I'm sure their fans who would've preferred the sports teams' name remain the same might have given those fans a few "stink eyes" initially, but, in the end, "old" and "new" name alike, all of them were celebrating their team grabbing a 2-0 lead after 2, along with the final score, also...
Curious as to what I was wearing this time? Well, look no further...
...in other words, basically the opposite of the previous weekend - the old U.S.A. 1980 white with blue and red "trim", and, also, obviously, given that ^ is already all-blue, blue shoulders with those little "white stars" on top of them...
I mentioned earlier that the 200 levels were not separated by team, although where I was (224), as you'll see in my "captures" from this night, is perfect for catching all of the action without having to strain one's head/neck muscles looking at the opposite end, although, I'd say, now, it does seem to be a bit too far up to see the actual ice surface instead of having to look at the "big board", although, also, it does seem much "lighter" up there in a quite literal sense, compared to the 100 levels, which, when I was at the FDNY-NYPD "charity" game (which, in reality, turned out to be a massive "'fight night'-esque 'shooting gallery'" of a game) last April, that level of seating seemed almost as dark as most movie theaters, instead of an NHL rink! As such, there were a few B.C. fans, and a few N.D. fans occasionally waving this massive green flag, fittingly, with the old logo/name, as were most of their flags down below, and a bunch more B.C. fans from about 223 (just to the left) over to the opposite corner (221), and then down a bit into 216-220, above which there was nobody and nothing, as the very top ends of the building were, once again, closed off, seeing that MSG wasn't quite expecting a total sellout crowd for either game (Cornell-N.H./B.C.-N.D.)...
...also, want a "visual" of all the goals, aside from the highlights?
...as for more hockey, however, well, that won't happen again 'til sometime in January, and, even then, I'll most likely still be trying to decide between more "college hockey @ MSG", this time between the B1G's Ohio State and Wisconsin, as part of that conference's inaugural "Super Saturday" basketball/hockey "day-night" doubleheader - RUTG/WISC @ 12, and OSU/WISC @ 7, or the Hockey East conference tournament semifinals/final set of games for this regular season, upcoming in mid-March!
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