THE SIN BIN: BU Fans Disgrace Icedogs, School

Disgusting. That’s the only word I can come up with that would qualify under the category of “journalistically acceptable.”

“Disgusting” is what comes to mind when I think back to two nights past, when I looked down from over the University of New Hampshire hockey team and saw them taunting our usually amusing and supportive Section 8 fans … and saw our Section 8 hooligans taking the bait.

Yeah, it was wrong for New Hampshire sophomore goalie Michael Ayers to taunt Terrier Nation when it was convenient for him, after the game was decided. Ed Caron, who scored two goals, did the same thing after the final horn sounded, waving his hands at the crowd as if to say, “Bring it on!”

But you took the bait. Sections 7 and 8 both fell for it — hook, line and sinker. And when I saw faithful fans adorned in scarlet and white throwing plastic beer cups, empty paper cups and even a lighter at Ayers and Co., I couldn’t believe what was happening. It was ugly.

It’s not like you have so much to be frustrated about. The administration banned the “Eat ‘Em Up” cheer two years ago, yet you heard it in Albany against St. Lawrence, and this year the band plays it at the beginning of the second period at every home game. Last week against BC they played it more than once, too.

As for this weekend, it’s not as if BU lost to Merrimack or UMass-Amherst. Be thankful you don’t have to go to sleep soaking wet-upset over the fact that BU can’t beat a team it should. No, your Terriers (who are still a Top 10 team) lost to the now-No. 1 team in the nation. You lost to the best there is. What shame is there in that? Yes, losing is not fun but imagine how losing to the Minutemen would have felt.

There’s a stark difference between verbal abuse and physical abuse. There’s a canyon of ethics between calling Ayers a sieve and throwing a lighter at him. The BU Faithful crossed a line Sunday night.

Last season, when the BU hockey team traveled down to Providence in midseason, the Friar fans would not get off then-captain Carl Corazzini’s back. Corazzini was one of the nicest players I’ve ever watched, on and off the ice. But the fans at Schneider Arena, a.k.a. The Coffin, yelled obscenities and taunted him mercilessly for some mysterious reason. But no big deal, I thought, they do this everywhere we go. BU fans do it, too; it’s just part of the college hockey game.

Then, after Corazzini took a penalty and was sitting for dos minutos in the sin bin, two of the Friar fans seated adjacent to the glass panel of the penalty box climbed up and started shouting at him down in the box. To my amazement, one of them took their drink and dumped it on Corazzini’s head.

Now that was bad, and so was trashing Walter Brown Sunday night. The only acceptable things to be thrown onto the ice surface are hats (at BU’s last two first-round Beanpot victories), octopi (at Detroit) and fish (at UNH). The Terriers won a few games at UNH over the last couple of years they probably had no business winning, but the fans didn’t throw garbage at them. Now, what happens the next time BU travels up to Durham?

That night in Providence was the last time I was shocked at a hockey game before Sunday’s fiasco. My opinion of Providence fans took a nosedive last season, and by the same rationale my opinion of BU fans has been soured.

I ended up in Section 1 for some time on Sunday night, nestled among the hostile and semi-inebriated Wildcat fans, and while their cheers seemed like ancient Chinese to me and I was slightly disturbed by some of their lingo, they did not throw garbage when John Sabo trickled one past Ayers or when Freddy Meyer somehow went five-hole for a score.

My only consolation in all this is that I’m reminded how the BU players don’t act the way the Wildcats did Sunday night. The Terriers hit the road with class and sportsmanship most every time out.

But whether there was instigation or not, BU fans shamed their school Sunday night. The New Hampshire players were bad, but the Terrier stooped to their level. I am all for BU fans showing unity and support for their sports teams, but there’s a better way than garbage.

First, there was the Cleveland Browns fans. Then, the New Orleans Saints fans.

Now, it’s Boston University hockey fans.