I'll make this post nice and easy for you and give it to you in the form of pictures from inside and around the Verizon Wireless Center in Manchester, New Hampshire.
With all of the photos I snapped, feel free to click on them to get a grossly larger view of the shot so you can soak in my amateur photography skills with a Kodak EasyShare 37mm Digital Camera.
Five megapixels up in your face!
The Cap'n and Cosby say it's go time for Picture Pages, bitches.
Corporate Cell Phone Retailer Arena - Manchester, NH
Game one on Saturday afternoon featured home-standing UNH and North Dakota. Sure, UNH had the home ice advantage, but North Dakota didn't have to look far to find some "hostile and abusive" local support. In fact, it was right across the street.
Hostile and abusive? You better believe it, baby!
The best part of this sighting is that North Dakota was nicely represented amongst the fans on Saturday. Certainly with everything bad going on in Fargo and UND's home of Grand Forks with the record flooding, there was not a high expectation that Sioux fans would turn out, but they were there and it was great to see them as well.
Pregame warmups behind the UNH goal.
What you're noticing there is that the end zone netting is rather high on the ends.
I mean, REALLY high.
Pre-anthem and introductions. What's a college game without a big flag?
I can't recall being somewhere where even the folks in the upper level end seats were safe from errant pucks and thought this might be a bit of a viewing issue but as you can see from the above photo taken from my seats for the weekend it's not bad.
UNH mascot Wild E. Cat always skates with his head up through the zone.
As for the game itself, it was a life affirmation of hockey for me as a fan. This game was speed, this game was extreme skill, this game was drama - personified. Some folks will see a 6-5 in OT score and think that it was sloppy defense or bad goaltending.
No way.
This game was firewagon hockey born anew. There was only one special teams goal scored in the game, a power play goal for New Hampshire's Mike Sislo and it was the first goal of the game. There were 79 combined shots on goal in the game, a game that was played for 60 minutes and 45 seconds.
Bestill my heart, ye hockey gods.
That said when Pete LeBlanc's rifle-shot one-timer zipped past Sioux goaltender Brad Eidsness for the game winner, some folks were a little hard up on the counting.
Bill Cosby wants you to pay attention during Picture Pages, fools.
LeBlanc's goal was his second of the game, then again, perhaps these UNH fans were just that excited that it blew their hats off on the ice.
Yeah, I'll go with that.
I am disappointed that I was unable to get a shot of the traditional fish thrown on the ice on either night for New Hampshire's first goal.
Whatever it was, salute to the winners of this true instant classic and a tip of the cap to the defeated, they've got nothing to be down about.
Hockey traditions are a beautiful thing
As for the second game of the night, well... It was a laugher. The difference being? I got a seating upgrade thanks to some friends in the BU section who said there was room to spread out.
Hey you! Yeah, you in the glass case of emotion!* Down in front!
*- (ed. Thanks Pete!)
With all of the photos I snapped, feel free to click on them to get a grossly larger view of the shot so you can soak in my amateur photography skills with a Kodak EasyShare 37mm Digital Camera.
Five megapixels up in your face!
The Cap'n and Cosby say it's go time for Picture Pages, bitches.
Corporate Cell Phone Retailer Arena - Manchester, NH
Game one on Saturday afternoon featured home-standing UNH and North Dakota. Sure, UNH had the home ice advantage, but North Dakota didn't have to look far to find some "hostile and abusive" local support. In fact, it was right across the street.
Hostile and abusive? You better believe it, baby!
The best part of this sighting is that North Dakota was nicely represented amongst the fans on Saturday. Certainly with everything bad going on in Fargo and UND's home of Grand Forks with the record flooding, there was not a high expectation that Sioux fans would turn out, but they were there and it was great to see them as well.
Pregame warmups behind the UNH goal.
What you're noticing there is that the end zone netting is rather high on the ends.
I mean, REALLY high.
Pre-anthem and introductions. What's a college game without a big flag?
I can't recall being somewhere where even the folks in the upper level end seats were safe from errant pucks and thought this might be a bit of a viewing issue but as you can see from the above photo taken from my seats for the weekend it's not bad.
UNH mascot Wild E. Cat always skates with his head up through the zone.
As for the game itself, it was a life affirmation of hockey for me as a fan. This game was speed, this game was extreme skill, this game was drama - personified. Some folks will see a 6-5 in OT score and think that it was sloppy defense or bad goaltending.
No way.
This game was firewagon hockey born anew. There was only one special teams goal scored in the game, a power play goal for New Hampshire's Mike Sislo and it was the first goal of the game. There were 79 combined shots on goal in the game, a game that was played for 60 minutes and 45 seconds.
Bestill my heart, ye hockey gods.
That said when Pete LeBlanc's rifle-shot one-timer zipped past Sioux goaltender Brad Eidsness for the game winner, some folks were a little hard up on the counting.
Bill Cosby wants you to pay attention during Picture Pages, fools.
LeBlanc's goal was his second of the game, then again, perhaps these UNH fans were just that excited that it blew their hats off on the ice.
Yeah, I'll go with that.
I am disappointed that I was unable to get a shot of the traditional fish thrown on the ice on either night for New Hampshire's first goal.
Whatever it was, salute to the winners of this true instant classic and a tip of the cap to the defeated, they've got nothing to be down about.
Hockey traditions are a beautiful thing
As for the second game of the night, well... It was a laugher. The difference being? I got a seating upgrade thanks to some friends in the BU section who said there was room to spread out.
Hey you! Yeah, you in the glass case of emotion!* Down in front!
*- (ed. Thanks Pete!)
As you can see, this seating did come with a bit of a visual impairment in the form of a goal judge.
C'est la vie.
The advantage of these seats, however is that they offer the ability to get some cool action photos, even on my crappy camera. At this point in the game while taking photos, Ohio State backup goaltender Cal Heeter was in the game because, well, it was 5-0.
Like I heard a wealthy NESCAC fan say one time,"Go get 'em lad!"
The other fun I managed to discover taking some of these real cheeseball shots is the joy of getting a photograph that really sums up a game in one shot.
Still an empty net! Still an empty net! Still an empty net!
The red light is on, the goal has been scored and the goaltender is nowhere in the shot. In a game that BU won 8-3, that about sums things up perfectly.
Celebration time. Note to self: Flash OFF next time. Dumb ass.
Tomorrow, a shorter pictorial of my day at the Regional Finals with New Hampshire's Chaw Man and a story about how nothing ever can just be a totally normal weekend away for me.
Posts
3 comments:
What, no credit for the glass case of emotion line?
I'm a dumb ass.
You're now accredited.
Thankks for a great read
Post a Comment