On this brisk afternoon, I decided that a hockey game at West Point would be a good way to spend a Friday night. A little over an hour away from my home in Connecticut, I got in the car and headed north.
After my car was searched for contraband, I arrived at Tate Rink on the West Point campus. It was built in 1985, holds over 2,500 spectators, and has excellent sight lines. It reminded me of Lynah Rink at Cornell, with no chairbacks and benches as seats. I managed to get a center ice seat about 5 rows up, perfect as such the glass was not in the way of my view of the nets.
I noticed that Army was uniform in every way. They all had the same helmet, the same gloves, the same sticks, the same skates. They wore their jerseys untucked and their shinpads over their skates - each and every player. It makes me believe this is done not only because of a sponsorship deal with Bauer, but also because of a soldier's uniformity. One thing that was for sure due to these players being United States Cadets was...they all had the same haircut.
I scanned the AIC roster and noticed 9 Canadians, 2 Slovakians, and the remainder being Americans. Pretty standard for a D1 team. (Except the Slovakians) Army on the other hand was 100% pure bred Americana. If you don't live under a rock, you know the reason why...
I scanned the AIC roster and noticed 9 Canadians, 2 Slovakians, and the remainder being Americans. Pretty standard for a D1 team. (Except the Slovakians) Army on the other hand was 100% pure bred Americana. If you don't live under a rock, you know the reason why...
The game started off with a fast pace. Army had the first few scoring chances with Danny Colvin banking the first goal in off an AIC player. It was all downhill from there, Army rolled out to a 4-0 lead by the end of the 2nd period.
The 3rd quickly started off with another Army goal, a nice shorthander from Bill Day. AIC had some good scoring chances, yet never managed to finish on them due to their inability to hit the premium ones. They finally did get on the board with a goal from Blake Peake at 6:05 of the 3rd frame. Army scored 36 seconds later and put the game on ice. AIC managed two more goals, but the result was all but set in stone.
In the end, Army came away with a 9-3 victory. With my college hockey craving for the night fulfilled and knowing my tax dollars were well spent in the Black Knight victory, I headed home looking forward to the Harvard/Quinnipiac game on Saturday night.
CPF
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