There are many great rivalries in college hockey.  Just a few are: BU-BC,
Minnesota-Wisconsin, Michigan-Michigan State, Cornell-Harvard, and
Clarkson-St Lawrence.
 
There was once a rivalry of which I can say the following: none was more
heated, none drew more interest (relatively speaking), none were more
exciting.
 
That is the hockey rivalry that used to exist between Merrimack College and
the University of Lowell, now UMass-Lowell.
 
Merrimack and Lowell are located ten miles apart within the area of
northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire known as the Merrimack
Valley, through which the Merrimack River winds.  Growing up in the Valley,
there was no game bigger than Merrimack-Lowell.  You either bled Merrimack
navy blue and gold or Lowell red, white and blue.  There was no sitting on
the fence.
 
As recently as about 6-7 years ago, but mainly going back to the late 1970s
and early to mid 1980s, the annual Merrimack-Lowell games were ones that
Merrimack Valley people and students & alumni of both schools quickly
marked off on their calendars.  They were games that you could not get a
ticket to if you hadn't already obtained one far in advance.
 
Both schools' rinks seat just over 3,000, yet routinely crowds of 4,000 or
more were announced and fans had to be turned away at the door.  The more
resourceful ones sneaked in and climbed atop the sections near the roof at
the Tully Forum, or piled several rows deep behind the glass at both
buildings.  Parking was impossible to find.  Merrimack PA man Rick
Savastano could usually be heard to announce at least once, "Would the
owner of the car with Massachusetts license plate xxx-xxx please move your
car, it is blocking the Zamboni doors...and is in the process of being
towed!"  (It wasn't, but the normal announcement never caused anyone to
move.)
 
And the animosity...BU-BC was never worse.  Local police knew to expect
several fracases each time the teams played, some of those taking place on
the ice.  It is said by longtime fans that a brawl in the Boston Garden
between Lowell and Merrimack that spilled over into the stands led to the
end of the Teapot Tournament at the Garden, DivII's Beanpot in the late 70s
and early 80s.
 
In one of the all-time classic quotes, longtime Lowell coach Bill Riley was
once known to have said about Merrimack, "I hate their f***ing team, I hate
their f***ing rink, I hate their f***ing fans...I hate their f***ing zip
code!"  (North Andover, home of Merrimack, has a zip of 01845; Lowell's zip
is 01854.)
 
There were many memorable games in the storied rivalry.  In 1982, Lowell
squeaked out a 4-3 win at the Tully Forum in the semifinals of the NCAA
Division II Tournament, won by Lowell for the second straight year.  That
followed a 5-1 win by Lowell in the same building for the ECAC DivII title.
In 1980, the Forum was packed to the rafters to see the Warriors beat
their crossvalley rival 4-0 to take home one of Merrimack's 7 ECAC
Championships.
 
In all, the teams played no less than 8 games in postseason tournament play
between 1977 and 1982, 5 won by Lowell and 3 by Merrimack.  During that
time, Merrimack won two ECAC titles and one NCAA title; Lowell won three
ECAC and three NCAA titles.  For each team, the road to the ECAC and NCAA
championships had a perennial stopover ten miles down the road in the other
team's rink.
 
Even after Lowell became a DivI Independent in 1983-84 and joined Hockey
East the following year, and Merrimack remained in the ECAC DivII through
1989, the teams continued to meet and add new chapters to their rivalry.
They met 9 times from 1983-84 through 1988-89, with Lowell winning six
times and Merrimack three.
 
In Merrimack's best year ever, 1987-88 - a regular season record of 32-4-0
- one of those four losses came at the hands of Lowell as each team won a
close battle in the other's building.  Both teams won bids to the NCAA DivI
Tournament and Valley fans were ecstatic at the possibility that the
longtime combatants might meet somewhere up the line in a DivI tourney
game.  It didn't happen, but that year was perhaps the crowning glory for
Valley hockey fans.
 
Tuesday night, 710 fans turned out to watch Lowell beat Merrimack, 5-3 -
less than 20% of the typical crowds that used to come in and watch these
teams play.  And the first time the teams ever met in HE tourney play, the
1994 quarterfinals, similar crowds watched Lowell win a pair of games on
the way to a second-place finish in HE and a double-overtime loss to
Minnesota in the NCAA DivI quarterfinals.
 
Lowell has now won seven straight from Merrimack, gone unbeaten in nine
straight, and has not trailed the Warriors for over six straight games.
Since Merrimack entered HE in 1989-90, Lowell has gone 15-5-1 against
Merrimack.  The fans are apathetic and treat the matchups as if their team
was playing any other opponent.  A Lowell-Merrimack meeting used to be
something people would drop everything for and pile the kids in the car to
go see.  Now they don't care.
 
What happened?  Why has this bitter rivalry turned into just another ho-hum
meeting of two opponents?
 
There are probably many reasons.  Number one is that the teams have not had
the same success that they had in DivII or even in the mid to late 80s when
Merrimack was a powerful Independent and Lowell was a HE contender.  Even
though Lowell has had success in HE since then after several bad years,
they have not been matched by their rivals in that department.  And the
series has become so one-sided that it is hard to draw much interest to it.
 
A related reason is Lowell's pursuing of a new rivalry with UMass.  I have
heard it said that Lowell "waited as long as they could for Merrimack [to
come around], and they have given up."  This may be more true than some
people will let on.  I recall that several years ago, some people - perhaps
Lowell - tried to set up a "Merrimack Valley Cup" to be given to the winner
of the season series between the teams.  That never happened.  (Lowell
would have won it 5 times to Merrimack's once if it were awarded beginning
in 1990.)  Now there will be an Alumni Cup given to the winner of the
season series between Lowell and UMass instead.
 
Another reason may be the change in coaches at Lowell from Riley to Bruce
Crowder.  Riley seemed deadset for a long time on keeping the rivalry going
once Merrimack entered HE.  Crowder seems to have bigger fish to fry, and I
do not blame him.  Riley was also much more emotional about his dislike
(but grudging respect) for Merrimack, and I think that carried over into
the games the teams played.  It didn't matter how your season was going, if
you beat your Valley rival, somehow it wasn't that bad.
 
As a Merrimack follower, it is sad but easy for me to see why this rivalry
has fallen by the wayside.  It should also be sad for all college hockey
fans to know what has happened here, as rivalries are a big part of what
makes the college game great.
 
A question that sometimes runs through my mind is, how much of a good idea
was it for Lowell and Merrimack to elevate their programs to DivI and try
to play with the big boys?  Lowell has come closer than Merrimack, but both
schools may have a hard time ever competing for a DivI championship.  And
although Lowell's attendance is picking up in the last year or two, neither
school has drawn the sellout crowds that were typical in the DivII days.  I
am happy that both schools have proven they can at least be competitive in
DivI and occasionally (in the case of Lowell) even do more than that, but
how can we evaluate what the true net effect of moving to DivI has been on
both schools and will the answer be good or bad?
 
Perhaps things will pick up once both schools get their new rinks and are
able to compete better for good players.  Perhaps it will take something
like a meeting for the HE championship to rekindle the flame that no longer
burns.  I dream of a day when Valley hockey fans cause a traffic jam down
I-93 into Boston to see the two teams meet at the FleetCenter in a battle
royale for the Lamoriello Cup.  Unfortunately, it may remain a dream for
many more years to come...
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
>> Co-owner of the College Hockey Lists at University of Maine System  <<
*****       Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at:       *****
*****   http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html    *****
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.