I too was at this game and I must commend Linda's account and her castigation of BC abd its AD. I was also at the BU game last year that got called on account of unsafe ice conditions, i.e. fog.? The one thing that I would like to add and try to convey is the experience of being there when the lights went out.?? This was a hard fought, back and forth, physical contest and by my account, BC began flagging a bit towartds the end of the 1st period.? To begin the 2nd period, N.D. started strong and at the start of the 2nd minute N.D. was flying down the cie into the BC zone when at 1:08 of the 2nd period, the entire Conte Forum went pitch black.? One second earlier ND skaters were winging over the BC blue line, the next second, ?darkness visible.?It was eerily silent for a bit and then a collective gasp.? Folks took out cell phones for some illumination and then the emergency generator kicked in and the ?emergency lights followed.? It is amazing that no one was hurt and I was su!
rprised that the puck wasn't sitting in the BC net.? I wonder how they would have handled that.
BC has mega millions and needs to spend some of it to correct this.
-----Original Message-----
From: Linda A. Harrison <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:20 pm
Subject: Re: Ice Conditions
P.S. here's a link to the CSTV "Rinkrat" blog talking about what BC tried to
do to deal with the humidity:
http://slog.cstv.com/rinkrat/2007/10/get_the_fog_out.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Linda A. Harrison [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007 12:11 PM
To: '- Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List'
Subject: RE: Ice Conditions
I figure I should chime in here, since I actually went to the game.
Shortly after my husband and I arrived at the arena, the first power outage
occurred, apparently due to some of the equipment BC had shipped in to try
to deal with the humidity. They only allowed us to use one door on each
side of the building to enter the facility in order to prevent humidity from
the outside from coming in. The equipment was in evidence throughout the
arena, but it was too much for the electrical system at Conte to handle, so
the power outages occurred.
Towards the end of the first period, the fog started to be more visible, but
despite that, both teams played at a very high level with lots of up and
down action (which helped with the fog situation). However, about a minute
or so after the second period started, the second power outage occurred. I
thought at that point they were going to tell everyone to go home and cancel
the game, but they waited until the power came back and resumed the game.
Unfortunately, the fog situation got progressively worse as the period wore
on, as well as the ice conditions (I saw parts of the ice that were turning
into puddles, as if the zamboni broke down and spill water onto the ice).
Before the end of the second period, they paged Hockey East commissioner Joe
Bertagna to go to the referees' locker room after the period was over, so we
knew something was up at that point. There was an extended delay between
periods, then they announced that due to poor ice conditions, the game was
over and per NCAA regulations it goes into the books as an official game, a
0-0 tie.
BC made every effort to get the game in, including hiring the extra
equipment (which, according to the CSTV broadcast we watched the tape of
later, was shipped in from a company in Buffalo) to try to prevent the fog
from happening again, but the equipment ended up causing power outages
throughout the game. That, plus the large crowd (which made the place even
hotter than usual) and the extra TV equipment, put too much stress on the
building (which, at the time it was built in the mid-80's, was considered
"state of the art"). It's unfortunate that this has happened two years in a
row, but now the athletic department and Board of Trustees at the school
need to seriously consider renovating Conte Forum to add air conditioning to
the building, which, while being costly to the school, could prevent this
from happening again. Otherwise, early season games will be risky in the
future.
There was one more thing that infuriated me; WHERE WAS THE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
LAST NIGHT??? His associate in charge of the hockey program was there (Tom
Peters), but Gene DeFilippo was nowhere to be found in the arena (at least I
didn't see him, anyways). Last night was another example of DeFilippo's
indifferent attitude towards the hockey programs at BC (earlier this month,
the women's team had to move their home game vs. RPI to the RPI campus,
again due to ice conditions). It's too bad that a first-class hockey program
has to play in a third-class facility, but unless changes are made in the
way the hockey programs are treated by the administration at BC, nights like
this one will continue to happen. Ever since BC moved to the Atlantic Coast
Conference for most of their sports, the hockey program has been treated
more like a club team and less like a full fledged Division I program by the
administration, and that starts at the top. But, I guess Gene's too busy
playing golf with his new ACC buddies to even care what's going on at his
own campus.
Just my $0.02.
Linda
-----Original Message-----
From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eric J. Burton
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007 10:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Ice Conditions
Funny thing they played a game between Providence and North Eastern and it
wasn't called after two periods.
Teams play in 70 degree weather all of the time and you don't see them being
postponed or cancelled.
-----Original Message-----
From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sara M. Fagan
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007 8:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Ice Conditions
I didn't see the game but I do know we are having unusually warm weather
here in MA. It was around 70 yesterday with very high humidity. In the
evening and through the night we had very heavy rains. I also heard that
the NBA called the Celtics game being played in Worcester in the middle due
to a slippery floor. I think the poor ice and slippery floor were caused by
the weather and unless you keep the doors closed for hours you won't be able
to control the interior atmosphere well enough.
Sara
SLU '77
Let's go SAINTS!!!
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "K. Cauwels" <[log in to unmask]>
> I watched the game on CSTV and it look bad at ice level. I'm glad
> they called the game after 2, it wasn't fair to the goalies because
> the fog down the one end was very thick. It looked acceptable when
> they were showing the game from the center ice cameras high above the
> action but when they switched to the ice level camera in the corners the
fog was terrible.
>
> I don't get to watch alot of BC home games on TV so I'm not real
> familiar with Alfond's conditions but if this is usual for October
> games they need to update this arena ASAP or not schedule home games until
colder weather arrives.
>
> Did I hear right when they said the infamous BC/BU game was in December?
> Maybe even adjusting the schedule won't work.
>
>
> Eric Burton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> How about B.C. ice conditions in their arena were unacceptable and
> the game should have been moved to a more suitable ice arena. That
> fact that this game was supposed to be the game of the week and
> televised on CSTV is even more frustrating. That the players and fans only
got 2/3 of a hockey game.
>
> The Officials decided to call the game after two periods instead of
> risking injuring the players in the contest. I think that is a
> disgrace a gong show and very unacceptable for a top flight program
> like B.C. I can't believe that B.C. doesn't have an arena with acceptable
conditions to play a full contest.
>
> If I was Coach Hakstol I would decline any further contests until they
> remedy the conditions in the arena. Or wait and schedule games in
> November and December instead of October.
>
>
> Quoting "Dr. Bob Hamilton"
> :
>
> > Anyone at the BC-NoDak game who can tell us more about the ice
> > conditions during the game?
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: M Stock
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Date: Saturday, October 20, 2007 7:13 AM
> > Subject: Results: October 18 & 19
> >
> >
> > >Thursday, October 18, 2007
> > >Non-Conference
> > >Denver 3 at Notre Dame 4
> > >Bowling Green 0 at Niagara 2
> > >
> > >Friday, October 19, 2007
> > >Atlantic Hockey
> > >American Int'l 2 at Connecticut 4
> > >
> > >CCHA
> > >Michigan 3 at Northern Michigan 1
> > >Miami 5 at Ohio State 1
> > >
> > >Hockey East
> > >Providence 2 at Northeastern 3 ot
> > >New Hampshire 4 at Boston University 1 Mass.-Lowell 2 at
> > >Massachusetts 2 ot
> > >
> > >WCHA
> > >Minnesota State 0 at Michigan Tech 2 Minnesota 1 at Colorado
> > >College 3 St. Cloud State 1 at Minnesota-Duluth 2
> > >
> > >Non-Conference
> > >Denver 3 at Notre Dame 1
> > >Mercyhurst 2 at Maine 4
> > >Colgate 3 at Michigan State 6
> > >North Dakota 0 at Boston College 0 Game Called After 2 Periods
> > >Bowling Green 5 at RIT 3 Bentley 2 at Western Michigan 5 Robert
> > >Morris 2 at Wisconsin 7 Merrimack 3 at Bemidji State 2 Rensselaer 3
> > >at Army 1 Wayne State 2 at Ferris State 6 Quinnipiac 1 at Air Force
> > >4
> > >
> > >Maverick Stampede
> > >Alabama-Huntsville 4 vs. Canisius 3 Manitoba 1 at Nebraska-Omaha 8
> > >
> > >Governor's Cup
> > >Alaska 3 at Alaska-Anchorage 4
> > >
> > >Exhibition
> > >Trois-Rivieres 0 at Cornell 0 ot
> > >
> >
________________________________________________________________________
Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com
|
