PROVIDENCE — Hockey is fun.
To many, this is the stupidest sentence ever written. For many, hockey is part of New England's sports culture, but for a kid born in San Francisco to hippie parents, he had no interest in the sport until his 6-year-old son started watching the Red Sox. , hockey was never part of sports culture. my.
For years I've been trying to make hockey a part of my sports life, but it never happened.
Because of my job, I started watching a lot of high school hockey, but nothing like what I saw on Friday at The AMP. Friday was a day off, but the NCAA Tournament was being held in the city and he didn't want to miss out on attending the game. And it was the best decision I could have made.
If you follow me on social media during the winter high school hockey season, you'll know that I regularly play “Little Hockey” (a reference to the famous Tim Meadows/Saturday Night Live bit) and that I posts about how he's “ready to play that hockey” – a viral SNL skit featuring Chance the Rapper.
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It's like sticking your tongue in your cheek. My game updates are full of references to how teams need to “play the puck deep, circulate the puck, and put the puck on the net,” which is as cliche as it is cliche. That's a complaint.
The bottom line is that there are very few people who have ever stepped foot in a rink who know more about the sport than I do.
Armed with this ignorance, I arrived at The AMP unsure of what I was going to see or if I would be able to enjoy the game as someone who was there to have a good time.
Spoiler alert – I did.
It started with top-seeded Boston College taking on Michigan Tech, a school I didn't know was real because I thought it started 30 minutes later. I let out the first of many cries of surprise when BC's Cutter Gauthier scored the first goal of the game 34 seconds later.
Usually such noise is frowned upon by the old idiots in the legacy media who dominate the press box. I didn't get into sports journalism to be bored to tears. This is why, in my experience, covering the New England Patriots is not as fun as you might think. And it helps me avoid high school coverage. The difficulty of such a boring situation.
On Friday, this problem was solved by AMP's impressive media hospitality setup. We were in the end zone on the ice, with plenty of tables, and enjoyed watching the hockey in action with colleagues Bill Koch, Jake Rousseau, and ABC6's Nick Coit.
As the Boston University frolic continued, I was able to ask my co-workers silly hockey questions while working. For example, what exactly is icing? What do we mean when we say deep in the pack?
The energy in the building was amazing. Koch, a Boston University graduate, said he may or may not have had good things to say about the BC faithful, but the fans created quite the atmosphere. When Tech got tired of the beatdown and things got shaky in the third period, it really ended one of the best afternoons non-hockey fans could ask for.
What happened next was completely different.
Koch and Rousseau repeatedly said the Providence Regional Tournament was one of the best in the tournament, and a lot of that was due to the Quinnipiac-Wisconsin game that followed. They wanted to take advantage of state sports betting laws to make the game a little more fun, and needed to figure out who was the favorite. I asked former pro jo secretary Mark Dever, the best hockey expert I know, who to bring, and he said this game was a toss-up.
I settled on Quinnipiac because former WPRI sports director Maury Hirsh-Gordon is an alum, and rooting for a friend is a strategy I sometimes employ.
I felt like a genius after Quinnipiac scored an early goal less than four minutes into the game, but when Wisconsin quickly scored two goals for their second, I felt like a genius. didn't feel that great. Quinnipiac tied it with 1:32 left in the second period. Things got interesting from there.
The atmosphere at the BC-Tech game was loud and electric. Quinnipiac and Wisconsin were unusually quiet. I felt so nervous. There was a moment of silence, then someone took the shot, and the result filled the arena with groans and moans from both teams.
Extra time was a fitting end to the day.
Coit, watching from the end zone, predicted OT would be over in less than five minutes. Koch counted down the final seconds and when he finished, I turned around and said, “You know what I want now?”
Koch smiled because he knew the answer.
Complete confusion.
We didn't get it, but the 6:04 that followed was incredible to watch. As I sat in the end zone, I saw the opportunity unfold before it actually happened. Watching the game from a high vantage point, I was equally impressed by how the players were able to score and the goalkeepers were able to make saves.
When Wisconsin took a slashing penalty in OT, AMP buzzed like it hadn't since the first game. Quinnipiac fans were hungry for goals, and now was the time for the Bobcats to attack.
Wisconsin committed a penalty, but Quinnipiac was able to escape before the Badgers could settle down. As the players slid down the ice, you could tell something was about to happen. Part of me wanted to see my stake (which apparently can't be put in an expense account) fulfilled, but another part of me wanted to see 6 OT I wanted to keep my dream of watching a game alive.
Victor Czerneckianair scored the goal that ended the match. His unpronounceable name will certainly be forgotten, but the explosion with which he rocked The AMP when the lamps were lit will not be forgotten.
My colleagues packed up their gear for the press conference, and I found myself staring out into an empty arena, listening to the humming of a Zamboni, and typing this column.
Most people feel happy when they finish work. That was for me on Friday, but that's not why I was smiling as I finished writing this last sentence.
Hockey is fun – and I got to witness exactly why.
