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| Schneider Arena |
My first Hockey East game of the year was unlike any other game I had been to. When I arrived at Schneider Arena, I felt like I was at an NHL game. Maybe that's pushing it a little bit. But everything about the place felt professional, it just didn't have that college feel.
Schneider Arena was built in 1973, holds 3,030 fans, and has a seating pattern that rings around the entire ice surface. It was built during a time when utilitarian baseball/football stadiums were popular and if I had to categorize it, Schneider Arena is a cookie-cutter hockey arena. Taking nothing away from it, it is a great arena, but it scores lower on the character scale. It scores high in lighting, seating arrangement, and the game programs were printed on glossy paper, a luxury in the college hockey world.
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| The tunnel |
The Friars came out of a tunnel, complete with smoke and laser lights. Boston Bruins anthem singer Rene Rancourt walked out to center ice and sang both Canadian and American national anthems. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I noticed there was no band in sight.
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| Rene Rancourt |
Ok, call me a traditionalist with a low key, Ivy League take on things. Providence had an excellent pre-game presentation. The tunnel, lights turned down, spotlight on the starting lineup; all of it I liked. But does this belong in college hockey? Providence can run it's hockey games anyway it pleases and the way they do it does make for a great atmosphere. But is this fanfare making the game better or morphing it with the pros? Where I come out on the issue is the reason college hockey is great is because the players are playing for the love of the game.
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| Providence defenseman Eric Baier '11 |
You have schools hundreds of years old, thousands of alumni, and rivalries that mean more than just the score at the end; they are deeper. This is why the Olympics are great. What you represent when you play for your school or country is something that you cannot put a monetary value next to. It is above the money. I digress, what I am simply trying to say is that college hockey should just play its game and not try to imitate the pros. If you don't agree with me, watch the NHL.
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| Maine defenseman Mike Banwell '11 |
Apologies for my rant. After all this, a hockey game was played. Maine's Joey Diamond '13 opened the scoring a little over halfway through the 1st period. The teams traded scoring chances for the rest of the 1st and most of the 2nd until Maine junior Spencer Abbott put the Black Bears up by two with a beautiful backhand to forehand deke to flip the puck over Providence goalie Alex Beaudry '12.
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| Providence goalie Alex Beaudry '12 |
Whatever the Friars had left for the 3rd period, they left in the locker room. Maine came out and quickly scored again just 38 seconds in. Swede Gustav Nyquist found a loose puck in front and quickly popped it in the top corner. It was all downhill from there, Maine dominated the rest of the game. It looked at times as if the Black Bears were toying with the Friars, behind the back passes, dekes off skates, laughing after goals. I felt a little bad for Providence, they were definitely in the game for the first 2 periods.
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| Swedish sniper Gustav Nyquist '12 |
When the buzzer sounded, the Black Bears had mauled the Friars 5-0. It certainly must have made the bus trip back to Orono easier to get though. This Maine team was simply the better horse, er bear. Up next is Maine/New Hampshire in Orono on 12/10.
CPF
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