Jan 11 2008
UMaine Downs RPI 4-2 at CCCC
Black Bear hockey is something of a religion in Maine. I am an alumnus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where the school provost specifically blessed the men’s hockey team during our class convocation (no, I’m not kidding). So when I heard that UMaine was to play my Engineers (no, they’re not the “Red Hawks” and they never will be as far as I’m concerned!) at the Cumberland County Civic Center in January, I just had to get tickets. She picked up tickets more than a month in advance of the January 6 contest and was told that almost all of the good seats were already sold out, so we had seats in the corner behind the RPI goal. Not a bad view, but nowhere near as good as our Pirates seats in November. I suppose the fact that Portlanders wouldn’t have to make the 2+ hour trek up to the Alfond Arena made this game even more popular.
There were many people wearing red in the arena, but I soon learned that most of those were Red Sox- or Pirates-related. We RPI fans were sorely outnumbered, and She and I sat amongst a sea of blue and black. Luckily, we’d just come from church, so we weren’t wearing any RPI paraphernalia. There were several RPI jerseys and hats throughout the crowd—we ‘Tute alumni get around I guess. Next time (if there is a next time—Maine apparently plays a different ECAC school every year in Portland) I’ll wear my RPI jacket with pride.
The game was entertaining, though Maine manhandled the RPI boys a bit, and I think the scorekeeper was quite biased in awarding shots on goal. The 4-2 final score is a bit misleading: the game was 2-1 half-way through the 3rd period. Maine scored its third short-handed on a bad giveaway by RPI deep in their own zone and the 4th was an empty netter when RPI pulled Mathias Lange with 2:20 showing on the scoreboard. RPI scored a junk goal with 30 seconds left, but She and I weren’t around to see it. The “home” crowd was not nearly as raucous as those in Troy, but it was a good time nonetheless. We’re glad we went, and we’ll have to take in a game up north some time to see what the Alfond experience is like. Oh, and Maine’s pep band can play circles around the Engineer band. Sorry, but it’s true…