Two games, two very important games. That’s all that’s left for the Icedogs as they try and position themselves for home ice in the Hockey East playoffs. How important you ask? Think Hickory High before the Indiana State Finals, the fourth quarter of North Dallas against Chicago, the Mighty Ducks versus Iceland or Rocky Balboa dancing in the ring with Ivan Drago. These two games are that important. Maybe not exactly, but you get the idea.
It’s crunch time for the Terriers, and if I were to continue the allusion to sports movies, we’d be treated right now to a montage of the hockey team getting ready for their weekend series. Shots of players running along the Charles River, skating in practices, firing shots on Fields in net and cutaways of Coach Parker giving them an emotional speech with the entire team huddled around him.
The problem with this final pair of regular season games is that the Terriers won’t be just making a simple jaunt down the street to play Northeastern or BC, but in fact they’ll be taking the longest in-conference road trip that they can make — a four-hour, 242-mile trek to Orono, Maine.
Yes, that’s right, the Icedogs are Pine Tree State bound, and as they make the arduous journey through the land of the lighthouse and the home of the moose, they’ll have a chance to reflect on their season. Many of the players’ thoughts most likely will turn toward their performance last weekend against Providence. Since they only picked up one point against the Friars in two games, the two teams now stand tied for fourth place in the league with 25 points. Providence, with one game left against Lowell tomorrow night at home, a game they are fully expected to win (then again, Riverhawks are known as helpful and kind creatures, maybe they could throw us a bone, yeah, beating the Friars would be very nice of you Lowell, thanks).
A win by the Friars on Friday would give them 27 points on the season, forcing the scarlet and white to earn at least three points in their last two games, which is a difficult, if not impossible, task considering where they will be playing.
The home of Stephen King, is also home to some rabid and crazy fans. Maybe it’s because they don’t have anything better to do then “Remember the Maine” and boast about being the country’s largest producer of blueberries, but these fans are definitely an intense and passionate bunch. I can respect that devotion and understand their fanaticism, but it certainly makes it hard on opposing teams. While Maine folk will rave about its beautiful lakes, fresh air and abundance of landlocked salmon, I’d have to say that it’s probably a great place to watch a game, but I wouldn’t want to play there.
With few professional teams in close proximity to latch onto, it’s very easy to see why the people of Maine would be so readily supportive of their collegiate athletes.
With 85 percent of the university’s student body hailing from the Union’s 23rd state, Black Bear fans are a rowdy bunch. The other 15 percent of course is the hockey team, which largely consists of players from Canada, Alaska, New Jersey and New York.
If you’re looking at recent history, you’ll see that the Terriers have had some struggles against the Black Bears. Earlier this season at Walter Brown, the Terriers looked outclassed, losing 7-3. All of last season, the Terriers couldn’t seem to figure out Maine, as it was Tim Whitehead’s squad that ended their season in Worcester in the NCAA quarterfinals. The only positive sign being that last year’s only win against Maine came in Orono, as Parker’s posse squeaked out a 3-2 overtime victory on Nov. 9, 2001. That home rink for Maine has given every team a lot of trouble. This year Maine is 13-2-3, and only just recently was their dominating 28-game home-unbeaten streak put to an end.
The Harold Alfond Sports Arena is Maine’s hockey home, and serves as the den for a raucous and intimidating pack of fans. “The Alfond” was built in 1977 and since the Black Bears first skated to a 7-5 win over the Axemen of Acadia University, they have gone on to have unparalleled success there.
The original capacity for the place was an even 3,800, but continued to serve sellout crowds and welcomed basketball, forcing the university to expand the place, making more room for all the lobstermen, snowmobilers and Black Bear fans who cared to grab a seat.
With two additions made on the east and west side of the building that boosted the capacity to 5,200 in 1992, and not ones to be without their luxuries, Maine expanded again adding box seats, pushing the hockey capacity to 5,641. From the outside, the top of the building looks more like a giant egg crate than a roof of a hockey rink.
Despite the difficulty that Alfond poses for visiting clubs, the Terriers may be catching the Black Bears at the right time. The recent loss to BC ended their unbeaten streak at home, and the team has fallen off a bit since then. At home two weekends ago, they were handed a loss and a tie when they faced Providence, and last Friday, UMass-Amherst beat them 4-2. Whether they’ve fallen off or not will be decided this final Hockey East weekend, and either way come tomorrow night and Saturday night as well, the fans of the Black Bears will be singing. They’ll be singing the Maine “Stein Song” which goes like this,
“Fill…the steins to dear old Maine,
Shout till the rafters ring!
Stand… and drink a toast once again!
Let every loyal Maine man sing.
Drink… to all the happy hours,
Drink to the careless days;
Drink… to Maine, our Alma Mater,
The college of our hearts always.”
With all that drinking going on, maybe the Maine fans won’t be able to focus enough to heckle and harass our boys this weekend. Then again, all the toasting and flowing of spirits just might make it a worse atmosphere for the Icedogs. You have to remember, a cave of bears is bad, but that same cave of bears after a long night of tailgating is the scariest place indeed.