Walter Brown Arena is the home of the Boston University women’s hockey team nowadays – a team that does not draw nearly as many fans as the men’s team does.
When it played host to the women’s Beanpot final on Tuesday night between BU and Northeastern University, however, it almost seemed like it had returned to its glory days.
In a 4-3 overtime loss, the Terriers let the Beanpot title slip through their paws when Northeastern junior Casey Pickett took a pass from freshman Kendall Coyne and slipped the puck by sophomore goaltender Kerrin Sperry.
Despite the loss, BU coach Brian Durocher was happy with the atmosphere the game drew.
“This was one of the most electric buildings, and this was probably the first time that any students at BU or even people that had been coming here for 10 years had a little flashback to what it used to be like,” Durocher said. “I obviously played in here, coached in here and when you put 3,806 or 3,804 [people] in here, and usually it was 4,200 because most everybody knew how to get in the back door with five bucks, it was an unbelievable venue.”
While Tuesday’s game did not feature a crowd of 4,200 – 1,129 people were in attendance to the game – the building held more fans this game than in any other game at Walter Brown Arena this season. The previous season-high attendance at Walter Brown this season was 602 at the season-opener on Sept. 30 against the University of North Dakota.
The BU men’s team played in Walter Brown Arena, which was constructed in 1971, up until 2005 when the team moved to the newly-constructed Agganis Arena. It was that same year that the women’s team became a varsity sport instead of a club team and took over the historic facility.
While BU’s newer hockey rink down the street at Agganis Arena holds more people in the building, Walter Brown is a better fit for a smaller crowd thanks to the acoustics of the building.
“The reverberation and the echo in the place was crazy and tonight there was close to 1,200 in here and the band . . . You could see what it used to be like,” Durocher said. “It was to the point where I’m sure the guys would like to come back here and have a throwback game in here maybe someday.”
The 34th women’s Beanpot is one of the premiere women’s hockey events on the in the eastern half of the United States, and was the perfect setting for BU to try to pack the arena.
“We do everything we can to attract the crowd,” Durocher said. “The coaches, the administration, the marketing people, they do everything they can. This year in the Beanpot you had great games [Tuesday], great games last [Tuesday] all the way around including one that went into a shootout. When people see that they get excited and they come back.”
Hosting events like the women’s Beanpot helps the exposure of one of the most successful teams at BU. The women’s hockey team came within a game of the national championship last season, and features a lineup that includes two of the top scorers in Hockey East in senior forward Jenn Wakefield and sophomore forward Marie-Philip Poulin.
“[The fans] see that it’s exciting to watch people play the game like this because most of them prior to coming have no idea that these ladies can play at this pace,” Durocher said. “We will continue to do what we can to promote the game, play anywhere, go anywhere and hopefully the fans will catch on.”
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