8/5/17

recapping *another* trio of college hockey games; looking ahead

(originally meant to be posted sometime back in the spring)

 (weekend of Sat., 1/28)

 Remember over the winter break, after I returned from Orlando, and mentioned my sporting event plans for this semester? Well, I changed my mind somewhat, and ended up traveling down to Philly a while back for (#4) Penn State v. Princeton! I'll tell you more about my changed plans in a bit, but, first, I should probably mention that this game was basically as close as the NCAA could get to bringing "local" D1 teams to Philly, although seeing about a 90-10 split in terms of fans in favor of Penn State, you probably wouldn't think those teams were the closest to Philly! The game itself was basically a continuation of my "luck" in terms of "offensive explosions" - in fact, just the opening period was crazy - Penn State scored barely 50 seconds into the game, then it only took Princeton about a minute or so later to tie the game already! After those 2 incredibly early goals, though, the game got sloppier, with both teams having tons of turnovers, and even a few hits, but after a few short minutes of that, the goals just kept on coming - another minute or so apart, the game went from being 2-1 Princeton, to being tied again, although Penn State added yet another goal to take a 3-2 lead into just the first intermission, with a few "man advantage" situations shaping that scoreline, although the second period was much slower than that, with just another Penn State goal giving them a 4-2 lead into the third period, although then the game turned from being a turnover-filled situation to a penalty-filled situation - Princeton suddenly scored a pair of goals barely a minute or so apart to eventually tie the game at 4, and got a bit of a "fluky" goal that went to a rather-lengthy video review, but still ended up winning the game for them!

(video of the game-winner): https://mobile.twitter.com/puhockey/status/825531087929503744 (IDK whether the Penn State players thought the puck bounced up into the netting somewhere, or whether - and this is what I think they were complaining about a bit there - also, the goaltender claimed to have "caught" the puck and held on long enough for a whistle, but that can't be changed now...)

Up here that weekend, meanwhile, Wisconsin swept its basketball/hockey doubleheader - against Rutgers by day, and against Ohio State (OT) by night, so, technically, Wisconsin was the most recent team then to win a game inside "the Garden"!

As for later this semester, well, I decided to stick "closer to home" here, after traveling to/from Philly over the weekend, although I should probably take things slower than last spring, where I ended up attending just about every sport at least once, since we might have a wedding of one of my cousins to attend up in N.Y. state at the end of this summer, although everybody more directly involved in that planning process seems to have gone "incomunicado" lately, so I'm getting increasingly concerned daily, myself, about that eventuality... Also, one of my aunts will be turning 60 next year, and wants to return (her, at least) to Europe, specifically Barcelona/Madrid and Paris so we've already started sort of "tracking" prices over there!



(weekend of Sat., 2/11)

In my most recent college hockey trip, I caught Princeton again, for the second consecutive time, except, this time, in its own historic building against Clarkson! Quite unlike their game against Penn State down in Philly two weeks earlier, however, this game wasn't nearly as high-scoring, but it played out in a very similar fashion, and for what it lacked in scoring, it more than made up for in "scoring chances", a few near-fights (as the game progressed), and, as you'll find out later on here, tons of history! Speaking of "history", this visit now means I've visited the oldest (Matthews Arena on the campus of Northeastern U.), and second-oldest college hockey rinks in the country! The crowd was a bit weird, to say the least, considering only Clarkson's band appeared, and even that was surprising, considering their campus is rather upstate in N.Y., so far, in fact, that they follow the Buffalo Sabres' (NHL) lead and play both national anthems (CAN/U.S.) before games! Princeton's band didn't even bother showing up, though, and most of their fans seemed rather "out of it" early on, although the start of the game itself seemed to go quite a bit in Princeton's favor, as they seemed to get all the shots throughout most of the game, although a scoreless opening period led to a rather stifling start to the second period for Clarkson, and, indeed, holding Princeton's shot totals down during that frame allowed them to close the gap in terms of shots, allowing them to eventually score twice around the middle of the frame, and, honestly, there was even less noise from the Princeton fans after that sequence than there was to start the game, since the team itself seemed to "turtle" and hold down the deficit to 2-0! That "turtling" only continued throughout the first half or so of the third period, but that was when Princeton's comeback started, a la the v. Penn State game in Philly, when it took them until about that point in the game to recognize they were down on the scoreboard, despite somehow still outshooting their opponents in both games! That was also when all the "scrapping" started, as a few rather dubious, if you ask me, penalties were called, and both ways, mind you, although nobody on the ice seemed to like any of the calls that were being made, as every stoppage during the third period seemed to contain some pushing and shoving between the teams... Princeton's comeback actually started, though, by converting on one of those penalties, and then tying the game a few minutes later, by which time it seemed we were all content with just "settling" for a little bit of overtime hockey, which ended up being total domination by Princeton, only taking two minutes of the five maximum to get the game-winning goal!

...I mentioned earlier that only Clarkson's band appeared at the game, right? Well, that seems to be "par for the course" for Princeton's band, 'cause guess where it was during the game!
​​
(incidentally, neither school's band showed up to the game in Philly, so that meant a game where only the fans were involved, which is incredibly weird for a college sporting event...)

...from what I heard during the game, though, Clarkson's band members must never know when to just shut up, though, considering there were a few instances in which they played over the top of either the fans, in-arena music, P.A. announcements, or any combination of those other noises, and they were stuck up in this "balcony", also, meaning that their sound was rather concentrated just within that corner of the building... They brought the typical "taunts", though, during the game itself, and while it was weird hearing the road team's band "taunting" the home team's players throughout the game, I'm sure they've come close to having very similar instances happening to them in the past...

I probably also mentioned that the building itself is incredibly old, but it's so old, in fact, that there aren't any video screens anywhere in the building - not even some "folding screen" on either end of the rink, but, thankfully, all the (bench-only) seats were basically the equivalent of 100-level/"rink side" seats in some "professional" rink, so no need, frankly, for such modern "contraptions", although those things are probably taken for granted nowadays!

(speaking of that Penn State - Princeton volleyball game which the Princeton band apparently considered more "important" than the hockey game, there were a few quite confused Penn State fans looking for that game, and apparently thinking that court was in the same building as the ice rink, but they immediately got turned away and told where the volleyball venue was...)

recaps:



Last but not least, I ended up in New Haven, CT, to catch an Ivy League rivalry matchup between (#3) Harvard and sub-.500/unranked Yale! First, though, before I mention anything about the game itself, I might as well mention, or, perhaps, remind you, if you've been there before, that Yale's rink looks like a "whale's fin", which might not have been as odd back in the 1950s, when it first opened, instead of being very weird now, when buildings have mostly been built "up" instead of "out"! It barely took Harvard the first 10 minutes of the game to open the scoring, unlike last weekend, which had a scoreless opening period, although you wouldn't know it with the way Yale hung in the game rather closely in terms of shots on goal... Harvard only continued the scoring in the second period, with bunches of penalties being handed out, and multiple of said penalties being converted, and for both teams at various points that period! Along with all the "special teams" scoring came a few "scraps" - no fighting, per se, but definitely enough pushing/shoving to indicate that those games constitute an "arch-rivalry", of sorts, within Ivy League hockey! Harvard also had a shorthanded goal, and almost another that got overturned, due to goaltender interference, after a video review that only the referees could see... After that overturned shorthanded goal, though, Harvard made sure to undoubtedly extend the lead to 3-0, at which point it honestly seemed like they would just steamroll their way to the Ivy League title, but credit to Yale for getting its own shorthanded goal, though Harvard added another (power play) goal early in the third period to basically put the game away, despite Yale cutting into that lead a bit later on, and pressuring the rest of the way! The building itself, just like Princeton, doesn't have any video screens, and the scoreboard has this top "message board", which I put in quotes 'cause it barely served as anything other than the obvious reminder of which school's rink it's in, except for an "out-of-town scoring update" slightly later on in the third period of the game... Also, just like Penn State v. Princeton in Philly, neither school's band appeared, and, ironically, this old hockey tune probably got more "airtime" than anything from Yale's own band (recorded, obviously, since it wasn't actually there):


(specifically, later on during the second intermission, and, sadly, at a pitifully low volume, compared to the rest of the "playlist" that night...)



...also, shoutout to the city of New Haven, CT, for being surprisingly, at least in my opinion, "walkable", which I honestly wasn't expecting, given that it's rather close to Hartford, which itself is rather close to the quite steep cities of Boston and Providence... Particularly after the game, when there was about an hour or so before the next Metro-North train (which itself is much better than the subways, and, although I've never taken any of those trains myself, LIRR, which, seemingly every time I've heard/seen anything about those trains, it's involved cancellations/delays in Jamaica, Queens/Penn Station/etc., and travelers being stranded...), I decided to just wander around downtown for a few minutes before heading back to N.H. Union Station to return home!

Well, that just about did it for "local" college hockey this past season, so, as of right now, that makes Albany, NY (twice)/Boston/MSG (twice)/New Haven/Philly/Princeton for me, and will likely remain so into the future...
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7/30/17

recapping a recent trio of international soccer games

Looking back a few weeks now, I was in Harrison for the opening "doubleheader" of the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup, featuring Canada v. French Guiana, as well as Costa Rica v. Honduras - the "security theater" was actually quite relaxed this time, given the events overseas just within these past few months/weeks - mind you, the situation would probably be more "magnified" had I been attending a music concert doubleheader, rather than a sporting event doubleheader...

The Canada - French Guiana game came first, and I'd be lying to you if I never mentioned the shameful attendance for that game here, considering the (rather) close proximity of various parts of eastern Canada (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, the Atlantic provinces, etc.) to this area, such that people from those areas could easily spend a weekend around here, at the very least! Having said that, though, the few Canadian fans who did make the trip to Harrison were quite passionate about their national team, especially a 16-year-old already breaking various Canadian soccer scoring records, except for the fact that the Costa Rican and Honduran fans who slowly trickled away from the concourses and into the stands as that game continued increasingly started supporting French Guiana, for no other reason, if you ask me, than Canada considering itself the "little brother" to this country, at least politically speaking...

As for the actual game itself, Canada mostly controlled the possession in the first half, shutting down any and all attempts by French Guiana to put any passes through the midfield, in particular, although it took them about halfway through said half to open the scoring, which very much left the Guyanese team in the game, and despite Canada pushing its lead to 3-0 in the second half, indeed, French Guiana struck back twice within about three minutes to make it a 3-2 game, at which point in time the sun gave way to absolute pouring rain almost across the field, slowly but surely, suddenly making possession tougher for everybody on the field, and even sending some of the fans down below scrambling back to the lower concourse! In the end, though, the rain let up, and Canada added another "insurance" goal to make it 4-2, which ended up being the final score of the game, despite being up 3-0 after 60 minutes, and, again, basically shutting down French Guiana's counterattacking efforts...


Immediately following Canada-French Guiana was Costa Rica-Honduras, and, suddenly, the few fans of those teams became many, and so did the physical play, although Honduras, at least in my opinion, had the slight edge in the stands, and, at least early on, almost the total advantage in terms of chances, as they got quite a few balls into the Costa Rican box, but Costa Rica started turning the tide later in the half, and, indeed, it led to a goal for them in the 40th minute, which stood the entire second half, in spite of a near-fight in the (lone) tunnel leading teams off and on the field heading into the halftime break, and tons of free kick attempts both ways throughout the second half of the game, leading to quite a few "near misses", so, after 180 minutes across a pair of games, there were seven goals, a few threats of rain, and somewhere above 10 free kick attempts, making the evening/night quite volatile, overall!


My main complaints about the stadium are the scoreboards almost being off in outer space, with how high up they seem to be along each end of the field, and the restrooms there, which look like I'm sure the "troughs" at the now-closed Joe Louis Arena in Detroit (concerts/Red Wings/various other indoor sports leagues' teams) looked like, and all the flights of stairs necessary for one to climb in order to travel between the concourses and seating areas, along with the fact that the local police decided to just cram people into the Harrison PATH station, which, since it's currently undergoing renovations, basically only consists of a few machines, and the gates leading up to the HOB/JSQ/WTC platforms on one side, and the NWK-Penn Station platforms on the other, leading to massive crowds of people looking to refill their cards in order to be able to get from the puny entrance up to said platforms!

Fast forward a few days/weeks, though, and you'll discover that I returned to Harrison, this time for AS Roma v. Tottenham Hotspur, and from the amount of British accents I heard on the way in, you'd expect the area to be "London west" rather than suburban N.J., although Tottenham made a very bold move for its upcoming season by announcing it would play its entire home schedule at 90,000+ seat Wembley Stadium in London... The lineups to get into the stadium were massive, but, once I did get in, I noticed the vast majority of the crowd supporting Tottenham - maybe even 80% (approx. 20K of 25K+) - basically, they did what the Canadian fans should've done, but didn't end up doing, a few weeks ago for the CONCACAF Gold Cup! 

As for the game itself, Tottenham controlled the first few minutes, but the very young lineup the team put out, compared to Roma's more veteran-heavy lineup, and after the first ten minutes or so of the game, that difference started to show, as Roma started getting more "near-misses", while Tottenham kept just taking "potshots" from wherever, instead of working the ball down low, into the 18-yard box, although one of those chances ended up being controversial, as Roma got awarded a penalty kick on a shot that glanced off one of the Tottenham defender's arms or shoulders, instead of said defender "handling" the ball for a split second, which would definitely warrant a free or penalty kick... Roma converted on said controversially-awarded PK, leading to much jeering from the (vast majority of the) crowd... After that, though, Roma kept the pressure on, despite only taking a 1-0 lead through the halftime break and into the second half, which featured a missed penalty call, and, as such, the bare minimum lead stood until the 70th minute, when Roma doubled the lead to 2-0 on what looked like a pass more than a shot, which ended up getting just tipped in near one of the posts - that was when Tottenham suddenly dialed the pressure up tons of notches, though, and finally ended up getting on the scoreboard on a crazy bit of play - a shot that deflected off the post; off the goaltender's gloves; off a few legs; finally, into the back of the net, and the insanity only continued from there, with Tottenham only needing another three minutes or so to tie the game, only to get answered almost immediately afterward by the third Roma goal of the night, which silenced the majority-Tottenham crowd almost as much as the sudden comeback woke it up!



The lineups to get back to wherever (HOB/NPS/JC/33S) were, once again, insane, so, partly to fulfill a bit of curiosity, and also to wait out said lineups, I went to the Five Guys located right near the stadium, which closed just after I got in there (shortly after 10 P.M.), although the employees on duty that night had to turn some people away, and while I didn't try any of their burgers, which I've heard are just as fresh as they are fattening, I did try their answer to Popeye's fries ("cajun"), and I'll be darned if those aren't the spiciest fries anywhere! That being said, though, I'm sure that's nothing compared to what awaits in the desert later this week...
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1/23/17

I visited Disney World (FL) recently!

I was just down in Orlando last week, returning to Disney, after visiting the joint back in 2000, although I basically kept myself in my family's hotel room that time, fiddling around with whatever the Nintendo 64 systems in those rooms back then had to offer... This time, however, some 16-17 years later, I definitely appreciate the place that much more, to the extent that I'm already planning on checking out the park in Paris, France, although I already missed a glorious opportunity to visit the park in Tokyo, Japan, except if that hadn't happened, then I probably would've already returned here, courtesy of Disney's "own" college program, so the company itself probably would've covered some of the costs there, and if it had happened, then this probably wouldn't have happened, since my family might have been so surprised by something like that that they would've thought I had overcome my personal "fears" from back in 2000... On a shorter term note, however, I changed my concentration, still in business, except in marketing instead of finance, and while I still consider sports my first "love", I definitely like Disney even more now than I did when they kept putting out movie after movie back in the 1990s, and also this decade, with a few throughout the 2000s ('00-'09), mostly 'cause they seem to have always been brilliant at marketing, just as Apple has always been so brilliant at marketing computers, but since these places are "few and far between", I guess I'll mostly be sticking to sporting venues in the foreseeable future, since there are quite a few more of those than there are Disney theme parks throughout this country!

Last but not least, I'll tell you that I saw just about every state represented there those few days (which I had previously noticed, weirdly enough, up in Maine a few years ago, when it seemed as if there were more visitors than locals), and even a few other countries - especially Brazilians - muitos Brasileiros! Also, almost everything was bilingual, in English and Spanish, with a few other languages thrown in occasionally, depending on location, and that not everything was operating, including the monorail system there having occasional "traffic delays", which I, at least, would expect more from the MTA than something like that system... Perhaps the biggest "takeaway" from there, however, is that the place is just obsessed with fireworks - like, I wouldn't be surprised to learn eventually that these parks use more fireworks each week than the Macy*s fireworks show/Times Square on New Year's Eve combined! My biggest disappointment, personally, is that Disney doesn't seem to "celebrate" its history that much - like, I would gladly take some piece of merchandise featuring all the Disney characters, past and present, since I'm into that stuff myself - how things like that have evolved up through today!

...in less positive news, I lost my phone last month, literally right around Christmas, so you might notice a bit less "clarity" here, since this is another Samsung Galaxy S5, which got "left behind" last year, when my mother upgraded to an S7, although this S5 should be a "lame duck" for only a few months until my upgrade comes along...

P.S.: Down below here will be some videos of those few days - you'll likely notice a certain "order" to things, specifically about which parks we visited, and when:

Magic Kingdom:


(the next few videos are a few "snapshots", of sorts, of one of the few ways in which Disney does "tie its history together", in a sense - it's basically a show featuring some of the best-known tunes from Disney movies past and present, and a few "miscellaneous" tunes, in no particular order, with some scenes from whichever movie while each plays throughout the park - if you've seen something like that in the past, well, trust me, it's that much better now, with more "variety" in the lineup than however many years ago!)











(end "castle light / sound show")

Animal Kingdom:




As for "history", actually, everybody in my family had previous visits down there - my father visited with his 3 daughters literally just months after the place opened back in 1971, and my mother's side of the family ended up having that place be among the very first places in this country they ended up visiting, back in 1986 or so, when they had just moved here from Peru, and I had previously been down there with them back in 2000, so we all have some personal "history" with the place...

As for this specific visit, however, years later, we got lucky and just avoided bitterly cold (by Florida standards, at least) weather by just a few days, when temperatures barely reached 50 degrees by day, and got down below 40 at night, and landed in 75-80 degree highs/60-65 degree lows, so especially if you've "never been" there, I'd suggest you avoid encountering such weather if you go around this time of year, and just plain don't bother doing so during the summer months, either from a crowd standpoint (majority of schools on break; etc.) or weather standpoint (temperatures frequently approaching 100, as my lone visit up to this point to the AZ/LV region of the country, a bit over a decade ago, ended up teaching me, although that's usually a "dry" heat), although in general, you should almost expect massive crowds, with even more massive crowds on weekends, and plan on setting yourself up to perhaps visit just a single park each day of your visit, assuming you only have a few days in which to do so, which we did, although anything longer than about 4 days might actually make you run out of things to do, assuming you're not also planning on visiting Universal, or perhaps some other city entirely, like Jacksonville or Tampa or wherever else down there... I also wouldn't suggest waiting until 2021, assuming, at this particular point in time, at least, we're even still around by then, since that year will be Disney World's 50th anniversary, although, as I mentioned when I said I had a "missed opportunity" to visit Tokyo Disney, and might end up having another next year (2018), if we don't end up visiting Disneyland Paris (is it wrong that I still refer to that place as "Euro Disney"?) at all over there, but, having yet to visit the place over in California (Disneyland), I'd say we should all should try to visit that park at some point during our lives, along with possibly an international park or 2!
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1/6/17

recapping 2 (fairly) recent college hockey games

(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 without surrendering any power play goals against, and NH had one of the top units of that nature in its conference, only to be shut down to the tune of 7-for-7 successful penalty kills, yet all those stats got turned "upside down" during that game... As for the fans, the Garden wasn't quite full, but NH only got about a section's worth of its fans showing up, and Cornell fans took up mostly the middle sections - the top end sections were entirely empty, and most of the corner sections were also mostly empty, but the 100/200-level sections were largely occupied... Also, there was a pair of either French or Quebecois guys in my section (208) who kept everybody both entertained, and also guessing a bit, simply by showing up, although they might very well have followed the Ottawa Senators to the area, and decided to take in this bit of college hockey, along with following their team over here from wherever, and a few more regular Cornell alums (one of whom was wearing this very old 1950s-era either football or rugby "sweater", with an equally-old-looking cap to go along with that) who joined those guys in just belting out the Canadian anthem pre-game, which didn't get played officially - only our anthem, although once those guys got done with their little "a cappella" Canadian anthem singing, the rest of us loudly applauded them, although there was a bit of humor while that was happening, also, since they just single-handedly decided to do that once the Garden decided to stick to just our national anthem... Also, practically the only times that section or so of New Hampshire fans was heard from were when the team opened the scoring with its only goal of the game in the 1st period, and then also at the beginning of their "2-man advantage", although I will say that all the Cornell were just a tad nervous after the NH goal that more of those would follow, but, as the highlights/recap show, that wasn't the case... Perhaps the oddest part of the whole game was never hearing the "recording" that MSG uses as its "goal horn", of sorts, at all throughout the game, except for highlights and what not from various past Ranger games, although the Cornell band did start playing upon each of their team's goals, which might have made up for the lack of that "recording" being played at all in those such situations during the game... Curious as to what I was wearing?

(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/news/2016/11/26/mens-ice-hockey-mens-hockey-tops-unh-to-win-third-straight-frozen-apple.aspx (which also includes video, but I'd prefer to keep those separate myself...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqY4EbMPzHs (I don't think New Hampshire posted any highlight videos, although with how the game went, I don't blame them for not doing so...)

(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 multiple times throughout the night, ranging from the pregame, to each intermission, and even during some of the commercial breaks during the actual game (given that the CBS Sports Network decided to show up), which almost always drew responses from the respective "fan sections" (100 levels only - 200 levels weren't separated any, aside from the obvious "1 person per seat" rules), even late in the game, by which time most of the cheering that had occurred had been in response the events of the actual game itself... Speaking of the pregame, there seemed to be some confusion among the players on both teams as to where, exactly, to stand for the anthem, as some of the players in both of the starting lineups skated back to the goal line, and some of their teammates skated forward to the blue line at which their starters had been introduced, but, in the end, everybody ended up "standing at attention" along both of the blue lines...

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 at the puck that ended up getting converted, suddenly doubling N.D.'s lead, before B.C. took what had already seemingly become yet another penalty, only to have everybody pile on top of their goaltender, and then start some "fisticuffs" immediately thereafter, and even a few players throwing their gloves/sticks down (not for fighting, mind you - merely out of frustration that the game had suddenly stalled to that extent, I guess...), leading to what seemed like about a million penalties initially, but, in the end, admittedly, after a few "weak calls" against B.C. earlier, only turned into N.D. penalties, turning what started about a minute before then as a "regular" N.D. power play -> 4-against-3 N.D. advantage -> 2 "minor" penalties, plus a "major" penalty suddenly gave B.C. the "man advantage" heading into the 3rd period, upon which they capitalized almost immediately in said period to cut the N.D. lead right back in half (2-1), and, then, just as that "5-minute major" expired, they tied the game, suddenly, and then from there, things seemed to stall even more, as the teams almost seemed content to head to overtime for a bit there, but N.D. regained the lead at 3-2 about halfway through, and doubled that lead with only about 2 minutes left, only to see another B.C. goal with just under 9 seconds cut that to the final scoreline of N.D. 4 - B.C. 3, as nothing happened after that goal for B.C. to potentially take advantage of to be able to again tie the game!

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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