Watching Miami Hockey in the NCAA Tournament

We have been wanting to travel to Boston ever since we first moved to New Jersey, but hadn't made it up for a weekend yet.  We finally decided at the end of March would be a good time; we both freed up a bit from work and a 3-day weekend was feasible.  Our next post will cover that, but it so happened that our alma mater, Miami, was again one of the 16 teams in the NCAA Hockey Tournament.  And, it so happened, their first game would be played in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on the Friday we intended to leave for Boston.  It's basically a little under a 4 hour drive to Boston, and Bridgeport is about an hour and a half along the way.  So we figured, let's go to that game, stay at a cheaper hotel along the way, and we can get into Boston early Saturday.

Though it was a great game, it started off pretty badly!  Miami was playing UMass-Lowell, and gave up a goal really early in the 1st period, and gave up another one that was called back within 5 minutes of the game's start.  They pretty much looked like the JV team for the first 2 periods.

But the 3rd period - which in hockey is the last period of regulation - got very exciting!  Miami scored 2 times fairly early in the period, but then got a penalty so that UMass was on a power play.  The puck conveniently ended up right in front of the Penalty Box as the power play ended, and the Miami player jumped out and skated down to the other team's goal.  A few passes later - and the score was tied.  The game stayed tied through regulation, which meant OVERTIME!

Miami hit a shot off the pipe of the goal that we thought won the game - but it wasn't over the line and didn't count.  Less than a minute later, UMass-Lowell scored and that did end the game, 4-3 for the "bad guys".  We were disappointed our alma mater lost, but it was still cool to see the game!