Pucks and Pins

After the holiday craziness, I’ve decided to get back to sharing some of my college hockey experiences. Yesterday afternoon my friend Julie and I went on the road to see UNH play Northeastern University. This “home game” for Northeastern was actually at Walter Brown Arena, as Matthews Arena is being torn down and replaced with a state of the art facility. Northeastern will be playing all of their games on the road until the new building is ready.

Walter Brown Arena is on the campus of Boston University. It currently houses the BU women’s hockey team. Before Agganis Arena was built, it also houses the BU men’s team. The first college hockey game I ever went to with Dan was a BU vs Maine game at Walter Brown.

it was fun being back in the old barn. BU has done some amazing renovations to the place, yet it still has the same feel as it did when I first went there almost 30 years ago

UNH lost the game 5-2 , but I had a great time.

Highlights included

1. Taking the wrong turn off of Commonwealth Avenue and ending up behind Agganis. When I got back to Comm Ave, I was trying to remember the correct side street. At that exact same time. The UNH team bus showed up on Commonwealth. All we had to do was “Follow the Bus”
2. Lunch at T Anthony’s, a BU institution
3. FREE admission to the game I did not make friends with the security guard however. I had brought some brownies for the Wildcat players to enjoy on the bus ride home. He reluctantly let me take them into the arena

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people who were actually at the game. Kickoff for the Patriots playoff game took place about 30 minutes before puck drop.

The NU “Dog House” (i.e. their student section) was represented by a small but vocal group. They have some very clever cheers. I did my best to try and out yell them in support of the Cats.

It was a great day for hockey, but then again every day is a great day for hockey.