Hank asked about our ol’ friend EastWatch, which would, for the first time, be a race for something other than fourth in the East. I hadn’t known there was sentiment in favor of it. I’ll try to throw one together this weekend.
Not Rask for Providence. Same lineup for Bridgeport, right down to Mike Mole.
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Smith-Walter-Lessard
Joensuu-Colliton (A)-Sim
Bentivoglio-Haskins-Sixsmith
Packard-Marcinko-Haley
D: Lee-Callahan (A)
Fraser-Wotton (C)
Kohn-MacDonald
G: Lawson
(Mole)
PROVIDENCE
F: Sobotka-St. Pierre (A)-Lehtonen
Marchand-Rabbit (A)-Reich (C)
Marquardt-Hamill-MacDonald
Nelson-Ryder-Knackstedt
D: Bartley-McQuaid
Penner-Boychuk
Fredricks-Stephenson
(Bodnarchuk-scratch)
G: Nastiuk
(Rask)
R: R.Fraser. L: Galvin, Redding.
Back from a full day at Ingalls Rink. Tip o’cap to Marty Crouse and his St. Joseph Cadets, 3-2 champs in double overtime over Staples in a 105-shot barnburner (and two days after St. Joseph’s Day, no less). And tip o’cap as well to Billy Verneris and his Hamden team, a 4-1 winner over a game Glastonbury team.
Apparently the same person (a fellow named Blair, so we hear?) does the music both here and at Yale. A few nights ago, I heard “Joker and the Thief” before the third period, and I thought, “gotta be.” But then today the mix didn’t sound quite the same, and I thought, “oh, well, maybe not.” But then Hamden wins, the gloves go in the air, the players jump on Anthony Avitable… and “Heave Away” starts up. Um, yeah.
There’s something really cool about hearing Jim Morrison sing “blood in the streets in the town of New Haven” when you’re in the town of New Haven.
They added a second press box at Ingalls as part of the first phase of renovations. There’s a theory of traffic that, if you add capacity to a road, cars will fill it. Clearly, the same thing happens with press boxes and camera equipment.
(My request for Phase II, BTW: more speakers on the sides. You can’t understand a word on the sides when they announce a goal and the crowds are screaming.)
So, stood up through both games. (Took a header when I missed a step up in the bowels of the Whale, too. Ouch.) It wasn’t bad except for the sold-out second game. I miscalculated. Specifically, I miscalculated the height of the modern American teenager. What does Glastonbury do with the kids who aren’t 6-1?
Hardest part of the day: seeing over 6-5 teenagers. Second-hardest? Figuring out exactly which way I was supposed to point during “Welcome to the Jungle.” (That drive down George Street is still chilling.)
And I managed to miss an important anniversary last week: the 10th anniversary of the best game I ever saw, the 1999 Division I final, March 13-14, 1999. Was thinking about it today when the DIII game went double-OT; co-champs would have been declared had it stayed that way. That rule came out of the five-overtime*, two-day excitement of the 1999 final. Had today’s game remained tied, the header would’ve been “Where’s Erik Roos when you need him?”
NOTRE DAME-FAIRFIELD 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1-3
NEW CANAAN 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-2
Records: Notre Dame-Fairfield 21-2-1; New Canaan 23-1-1.
Goals: ND-J.R. Bria, Scott Lengyel, Erik Roos; NC-John Dawson, Matt Twombly; Assists: ND-Peter Giatrelis, Steve Murphy, Mike McDonough; NC-Mark DeFelice, Dawson, Twombly; Goalies: ND-Mike Wolfe (39 saves); NC-DeFelice (33); Shots: ND-36; NC-41.
*-They were, in fairness, eight-minute OTs at five-on-five. The current setup is one 15-minute overtime, then another 15-minute period of four-on-four.