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This story can be found online at:
http://www.pressherald.com/sports/college/hockey/040328colsol.shtml

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                        Sunday, March 28, 2004

                       COLUMN: Steve Solloway



                             Among the cheers, the time for tears




                          Copyright  2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.





ALBANY, N.Y. - Somewhere up in Section 109, a family felt limp. How many times can a stomach knot and unknot?

     How many times can the heart race? How many times can it stop?

     Fran Murphy can't have any idea. For all he knows, the last 24 hours were really 24 weeks.

     He is the father of Ben Murphy, junior forward for the University of Maine hockey team. He is the father of Dan Murphy, sophomore forward for Harvard.

     If you spent any time watching the NCAA East Regional on television from the Pepsi Arena this weekend, you couldn't miss them. Not that anyone asked their permission, but the Murphy family of North Andover, Mass., became media magnets.

     A family conflicted by loyalties to one son or the other. A hockey family blessed. A family in a win-win situation. Television cameras sought them out Friday night when Harvard played Maine.

     Harvard upsets Maine and they can cheer. Maine beats Harvard and they can cheer again.

     Maine beats Wisconsin the day after, as most everyone expected, and listen to another round of family cheers.

     Nice story. Sweet story, what with an extended family and friends accompanying Fran and his wife, Ellen.

     If only life and sports were so simple.

     No one but the family saw their tears afterward. No one saw a family that came together to console the son who lost.

     No one saw a family that celebrated with the son who won.

     "There were no celebrations," said Fran Murphy, just before Maine and the older son, Ben, played Wisconsin. "There were congratulations. But it was hard."

     That's why we have such a love-hate relationship with sports. We want our games to be simple, our winners and losers clear cut.

     We want them to be challenged, but not too much lest they fall. We cheer and we cry, and like the Murphy family, we come back for more.

     "Tonight will be better," said Fran Murphy, only minutes before Colin

    Shields scored the game's first goal to give Maine the lead Saturday night.

     Seated in a section with many other Maine fans, the expectations were for more goals, a victory that would come more easily than the one the night before.

     It didn't happen, because that's the other reason we love sports. We don't know how a game will play out.

     Guess? Yes. Know? Never.

     Wisconsin was a team of mainly freshmen and sophomores. A team from halfway across the country that came east with a smattering of fans.

     A team with names from America's heartland. Carlson and Burish. Degenhardt and Eichelberger. Funk, Suter, Wozniewski.

     A team that didn't care that it was expected to lose. Maine is the top-ranked college hockey team in the country. Quick, someone better tell that to the kids from Wisconsin.

     Wisconsin tied Maine in the second period. Wisconsin goalie Bernd Bruckler shut out Maine for two periods. The same Maine team that scored four goals in 20 minutes the night before couldn't score one goal in 40 minutes.

     That is, until Mike Hamilton shot early in overtime and somehow the puck inched past Bruckler for the winning goal.

     Only then did Fran Murphy know he wouldn't have to console another son.

     There is no more fluid game than hockey. No other game where the outcome may be decided in the blink of an eye.

     No other game where the gathering momentum can crush you.

     That's what happened Friday. Harvard was flattened by Maine's four goals in 20 minutes. Harvard believed it would win, that it might reclaim some of the hockey glory it once had.

     Truth be told, the Murphy family wouldn't have minded consoling Ben Murphy if Maine had lost Friday. Maine and Ben Murphy went to the Frozen Four two years ago.

     In a father's eyes, it was Dan's turn. Dan had worked hard. Dan's team had earned a spot in the East Regional. Dan's team was beating Ben's team Friday night. The score was 4-1.

     Then everything changed.

     Maine beat Wisconsin. The Murphy family is going to the Frozen Four. But what a ride.

     Coaches will tell you, survive and advance. At this time of year, nothing else matters.

     Unless you're a father.

     Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at:

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