{"id":98068,"date":"2016-11-14T06:07:24","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T12:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/hockey-east-blog\/?p=1811"},"modified":"2016-11-14T06:07:24","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T12:07:24","slug":"humiliation-alfond-and-zambonis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2016\/11\/14\/humiliation-alfond-and-zambonis\/","title":{"rendered":"Humiliation, Alfond and Zambonis"},"content":{"rendered":"
These are the three things I think<\/em> I learned this week.<\/p>\n 1. UNH suffered a I’ll admit it. When I saw that New Hampshire lost in overtime to Arizona State, I instinctively concluded that the Wildcats were in for a loooong<\/em> season. After all, Arizona State only began playing varsity hockey last season, and this year is the first one in which it’s playing a fully Division I schedule.<\/p>\n Losing to such a fledgling program — and at home, no less–feels like something to hang your head over, especially when you have as proud a history as UNH’s.<\/p>\n But then one day later, the Sun Devils trailed third-ranked Boston College by only a single goal, 2-1, with just three minutes to play. And the Eagles had needed power plays to score both of their goals.<\/p>\n Not to mention that Arizona State also beat then-18th ranked Air Force earlier this year.<\/p>\n So UNH’s loss was… just a loss. Not a proud moment; but not a humiliating one either.<\/p>\n 2. Alfond Arena is once again becoming a tough place to play.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, Maine’s home record is only 4-3-0, hardly reason to break out the bubbly. But look at who the Black Bears have played there. Other than a struggling Rensselaer team, they’ve taken on third-ranked BC, fifth-ranked Massachusetts-Lowell, and seventh-ranked Quinnipiac, splitting with the latter two powerhouses.<\/p>\n Of course, we’re not talking the kind of dominance the Paul Kariya-led Black Bears enjoyed or for that matter that of Steve or Martin Kariya’s teams. But considering that Maine was projected to be rebuilding this year, Alfond has become a surprisingly hostile venue.<\/p>\n 3. Zamboni failures aren’t just a youth hockey phenomenon.<\/strong><\/p>\n Fan’s at Sunday’s Northeastern – Notre Dame game found this out the hard way. With the score tied, 0-0, the two squads headed to their dressing rooms for the intermission heading into the third period.<\/p>\n But there was no third period.<\/p>\n When one of Northeastern Zamboni’s broke down in the left corner of the ice, that portion of the ice was unable to freeze. After a delay, the ice was eventually deemed unplayable.<\/p>\n Hockey East’s executive committee will decide later this week the fate of the game. Of course, the visiting team being Notre Dame renders a makeup an even worse logistical nightmare than it would be for any local team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These are the three things I think I learned this week. 1. UNH suffered an embarrassing loss. I’ll admit it. When I saw that New Hampshire lost in overtime to Arizona State, I instinctively concluded that the Wildcats were in for a loooong season. After all, Arizona State only began playing varsity hockey last season, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1425],"tags":[1236,1490],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nn embarrassing<\/del> loss. <\/strong><\/p>\n