Thought I would add onto Andy's on-site observations from Maine's visit to
Ohio.
I only went on Friday night, though; my brother and I drove from the
suburbs of Cleveland on Friday afternoon, visiting some of the local
brewpubs once arriving in Columbus. I made a point to have my first visit
to his new home on a weekend Maine Hockey was 2 hours away by car.
>(If you ever get a chance to go see the Schottenstein Center, it is a
>beautiful facility, even when the lights go off in the middle of the game)
The Schottenstein Center sign is almost impossible to see from the street.
Considering it's also known as Value City Arena, one would think the
$pon$or'$ name would be on the building somewhere. And no beer during the
game...therefore, it must be considered an "on-campus" facility, which is
understandable given that it is completely surrounded by several other
athletic venues. The building is full of Buckeye stuff, right down to red
seats throughout the arena, and murals on the floors in the concourses
representing athletes in team garb. But why do a baseball player in a
building hosting hoops and hockey ?
Beautiful new rink, better even than Fleet Center for hockey. I think I
saw the old rink driving around, I seem to remember comments on HOCKEY-L
about it being a dump. Nice to see the school upgrade the venue, now if
the supporters only reciprocate (see below).
Hard to believe an NHL team will be in the same facility next season. Went
looking for
Blue Jackets merchandise in the arena, couldn't find it. Lots of Ohio
State stuff, though. Imagine that. One only wonders what kind of NHL
town it is going to be (see comment below).
But what really was curious was the size of the crowd. Andy, back me up:
there couldn't have been more than 3,500 - 4,000 tops there on Friday
night. And it was Homecoming for them, with nearly 100,000 coming in for
football the next day. No wonder they didn't have to send tickets to Maine
for this away game...
It certainly can't even be for the ticket prices, either; I got first row
balcony seats for FOUR BUCKS EACH !!! I think top prices were eight or
eleven. Alfond tickets run $ 15.00 Ah, the laws of supply and demand.
I detected maybe 10 Maine home or away shirts in the stands. Thanks all
for going and supporting the boys.
Onto the contest itself...
>On Friday night, I thought that the Bears looked a little slugglish. The
>team speed just did not >seem to be there on Friday.
Maine was not sluggish as much as comfortable. I really think that given
the early record of
Ohio State, and Maine's own early successes, they might have thought they
could cruise with a lead. Period two was sponsored by Sominex. It seemed
only after Maine went down 2-1 did they return to the swarming offense in
front of Aho that was exhibited in their opening goal. OSU was absolutely
ineffective when Maine decided to press in the low slot. Maine's puck
handling when they turned it up in the offensive zone was very impressive
and not easily turned aside by OSU. Hard to believe Shawn decided to shake
up the lines in the third period; it looked like they had been together for
months instead of the night or the first weeks of the season.
Ohio's own-goal that Kariya was given credit for really knocked the
stuffing out of Ohio State. All reports indicated that Sunday's game was
played with more intensity by Maine. Shawn should have given them the
what-for after slacking a bit, although he did not look at all frantic on
the bench on Friday night at any time I observed him.
>Maine looked solid on defense, but did not really shut OSU down.
I think we may be looking at another strong rotation in goal.
Yates/Morrison may not be NHL-caliber college stars that Snow/Dunham were
(are?) but they are solid. Yeats stoned a breakaway in the third period,
ably contributing to lifting the second period lethargy exhibited by the
MIB. Ek looks to be the most dominating of the blueliners, and not merely
because of his size. Reminds me a lot of Hal Gill, at similar points in
their respective careers.
Maine did not forecheck that well on OSU breakouts during the slow points
in the game, choosing instead to pretty much wait for the play into the
defensive zone. That might not yield favorable results when up against the
BC's and New Hampshire's later on the schedule.
>They took a few dumb penalties.
Well, my voice is still weak from protesting the call against Maine in the
3rd period when an Ohio player very clearly took a fall to draw a penalty.
Undoubtedly that was the inspiration for Brendan Walsh to do likewise soon
after; however, he draws a 10-minute misconduct for "diving". What's the
story there ?? My brother, not a Maine alumnus (Cornell during the 70's),
and more objective therefore on things Blue, had commented early in the
game that the officials were giving calls to Ohio they didn't deserve.
>P.S. An OSU fan was giving me a hard time during the Friday game..... I
>found that the response that got him to shut up the quickest was
> "When you guys (OSU) can beat Michigan (in football) more times in a
>decade than we (Maine) win hockey championships, then we can talk"
Great line, but you could have easily decided to move somewhere else to
sit. Given it was practically open seating / general admission, why get
confrontational ?
Sorry for the delay in coming up with some observations, but it looked as
though some might not be interested, and I forgot to take along the
notebook I usually use for game notes on these commentaries on away games.
Rust on my part.
Go Blue !!
Dan Doucette
*** Isn't it fitting someone named Garth Snow is playing ***
*** for a hockey team in Canada ??? ***
Maine - National Champions 1993 and 1999 -
first in the new Millennium ?
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