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In so far as a penalty for roudy fan behavior, we had an incident here during lacrosse season that's relevant. UMass has a fierce lax rivalry with Syracuse. This past season both were in the top 15 when they played on a perfect spring Saturday afternoon before at a packed Garber Field. UMass fans relentlessly threw oranges at the Syracuse goal after each score (a frequent occurrance for those who know lacrosse). Soon the PA announcer warned the crowd, but the oranges still flew, so after each goal UMass received a peanlty for delay of game, giving Syracuse the faceoff and a :30 advantage. UMass trailed and their comeback attempt was stimied by the man-down sitautions. In addition, the fans got a taste of their own medicine as the Syracuse players started to fire the fruits back at the crowd, and you get some good velocity with those sticks. The differance between this and the fish is that the fish is controlled. There is a regulated system for throwing it, and it is done in almost a ceremonious fashion, not a crazy drunken one. Being on the opposing side I obviously hate seeing the fish fly, but I will defend it as being one of the unique rituals that makes college hockey such a wonderful thing. The octopus in Detroit existed for a long time as just a single throw, it wasn't until all the media hype around their playoff run that everyone and their uncle decided that they had to toss one. Credit the UNH fans with showing the self-restraint to refrain from keeping the Towse ice from looking like the New England Aquarium. This tradition is unique and harmless. No harm is done, it's thrown onto the ICE, not a player, so no trouble comes of it. However much I dislike seeing it as a UMass partison, I think it's a great tradition and hope it continues until the Whittemore Center is looked at as being "historic." Leigh [log in to unmask] HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.