Re: Maine- New Hampshire Home n Home 1/24-1/25 Light the flame thrower!
Bravo! Bravo!! Encore! Encore!!
Please tell us about Sunday evening game in Orono!
It is a bone-chilling Friday night in Durham, as two long-time Hockey East rivals renew acquaintances at the barn better known as Lake Whitt. Two periods have been played, and despite being badly outshot over the first two periods, the host Wildcats hold a narrow 2-1 lead over their arch-enemies down the hall from Orono. In the solitude of the two dressing rooms, with only a few minutes left before they are summoned out for the decisive final 20 minutes, both team's head coaches slowly meander to the center of their respective rooms, surrounded by their exhausted but fully-committed players, and begin to prepare their charges for the battle that is to follow, with eerily similar monologues ...
DU: Well, boys ... I haven't got a thing to say. Played a great game...
RG: ... so far, all of you. Great game.
The coaches seem more reflective than one would expect, given the circumstances. But they both continue, slowly and quietly ...
DU: I guess we just can't expect to win ‘em all. I'm going to ...
RG: ... tell you something I've kept to myself for years. Some of you never knew Coach ...
DU: ... Trevor's family has been around this program for a long time now ..
RG: ... but you know what a legacy ...
DU: ... his family has been at UNH ...
RG: ... Coach has left behind in Orono ...
The two groups of players are rapt, slowly drawing closer to their leader, waiting for more ...
DU: The last thing he said to me before tonight's game ...
RG: "Red," he said - "sometime, when the team is up against it ...
DU: ... and the shots are beating the boys ...
RG: ... tell them to go out there with all they got ...
DU: ... and win just one for the Corsi!!!"
RG: ... and win just one for TIMMAY!!!"
The players in both rooms are ... bewildered???
RG: "I don't know where I'll be then, Red", he said ...
DU: " ... but I'll know about it - and I'll be happy."
Both coaches wander away slowly, leaving Captains Knodel and O'Connor to look around the room and shout a hearty "Well, what are we waiting for?" command to their somewhat confused teammates. With a single unified roar, the players rush through the doorways at the opposite ends of the hallway towards the gargantuan, oversized sheet of ice, ready to do their Coach's bidding.
In the end, despite the odds stacked against both squads, it will be a "happy ending" for both teams, as a wildly undisciplined 'Cats squad throws caution to the wind, and racks up an amazing 30 shots in the final stanza, doubling their combined SOG totals over the first two periods.The stattos *watching* the game online in their parents' basements up and down the NH Seacoast are all overcome with sheer joy ... perhaps oblivious to the fact that while UNH piles up the possession and SOG data, the Black Bears have sprung a half-dozen breakaways over the first 18 minutes of the 3rd period, scoring twice and taking an *improbable* 3-2 lead.
Predictably, UNH pulls DeSmith in the closing minutes, hoping to salvage a point on top of their improbable but suddenly-decisive SOG *victory*. Not so predictably, Coach Gendron channels his "inner TIMMAY!!!" and pulls Ouellette at the other end, leaving players on both benches totally confused (although some BC wiseguys following the USCHO game thread immediately suspect something's up on the UMaine -1.5 goals point spread) ... especially when UMaine launches a last-gasp attack on the opposing goal, only for a defensive mixup allowing UNH's junior defenseman Ryan Randall to score his first career goal in what has been his first career Varsity game
Young Randall is ecstatic, to say the least, and skates in front of the UMaine bench, doing his best Richard Sherman/John Wensink impersonation, causing the Black Bears to pour en masse off the bench. The 'Cats follow suit from the opposite side of the rink, and mayhem ensues for the next ten minutes. Think 1987 WJC Canada vs. Soviet Union stuff. Both teams have all of their players DQ'ed, and the OT never gets played. Commish Bertagna suspends both coaches for the rest of the season, and both teams sink like stones to the bottom of the HE standings, along with the likes of UMass, Merrimack, and yes, even BU.
---------------------
Sadly ... even if none of this ever happens, neither UMaine nor UNH was/is likely to make it to Boston this year anyway ...
Bravo! Bravo!! Encore! Encore!!
Please tell us about Sunday evening game in Orono!
