Wingers In A Winter Wonderland
January 8, 2010 | Men's Ice Hockey
Jan. 8, 2010
BOSTON - With archrivals Boston University and Boston College eager to square off at historic Fenway Park on Friday night, fans are definitely not going to see a no-hitter.
And the area around third base will not be referred to as the hot corner.
In fact, the forecast calls for snow, and the Terrier players can't wait to lace up the skates for the first outdoor game that a Boston University team has played since January 7, 1956.
After practicing on the fabled field on Wednesday afternoon, sophomore Ross Gaudet rhapsodized about becoming a winger in a winter wonderland. "It's an honor just to get an opportunity to play here," said Gaudet, one of just three Massachusetts natives on this year's team. "At first I was a little bit overwhelmed just by being on the field, but once I got on the ice and started skating, I just took it all in," Gaudet said. "It was an awesome feeling just being out there on the rink.
"It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me; I doubt I'll have a chance to play here again. It's just a great atmosphere. Growing up in Boston, going to Red Sox games, it's just amazing to see it converted to a rink and have a chance to play on it."
The experience is especially sweet in light of the fact that Gaudet did not dress up once for last year's national championship team, which had an incredibly deep set of forwards. "I knew that I'd be getting an opportunity this year and I'd have to take advantage of it, and I think I've done that pretty well to this point," he said. "I worked pretty hard over the summer -- working out and skating. The season's been bittersweet. We've been struggling, but we're starting to pick it up now. Just getting an opportunity to play has been great."
Wednesday's practice gave the team an opportunity to test out hockey in the great outdoors for the first time as a team. "The ice was a little bit choppy today, so you're going to have to move the puck quickly," Gaudet said. "The boards and glass are a little dead, so the puck's not going to be bouncing out like it normally would on a rink inside. But other than that, the elements will be a factor with snow and cold but probably not too bad.
"A lot of guys have and it's been consistently saying snow, so that's what we're expecting. I think that would be pretty cool if there's a little flurry and nothing too intense."
Gaudet's teammates shared his excitement about their first Fenway practice. "It was a lot of fun," senior defenseman Eric Gryba said. "It was like a bunch of 12-year-olds playing out there."
Given that Gryba grew up amidst harsh prairie winters in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, you might think he would find the prospect of a forecasted low temperature of 15 degrees on Friday to be almost balmy. While some of his teammates sported ski caps and balaclavas at the practice, the Lumberjack, as some teammates call him, wore his usual helmet. Still, Gryba admitted that the cold could be daunting. "Yeah, it's a little bit colder at home right now, but it's still not warm out there," Gryba said. "When you get going, the wind cuts right through you. It's chilly, but it's definitely not minus 40."
Between wind, cold, snow, and the largest crowd ever to see a BU hockey game, Terrier coach Jack Parker has a host of unusual to ponder at Frozen Fenway. "I don't think 35,000 people is going to be a problem," Parker said. "It's probably going to sound like less of a crowd than at Madison Square Garden or sometimes at the Beanpot because they're not right on top of you like they are at an arena. So I don't know that it will quite as loud and exciting that way.
"I think the biggest problem is the sightlines: You're looking up over the boards, and you don't see fans. You see distance before you see anything else. It might be a problem for the goalies; we'll have to see at the pre-game skate on Friday. It's always different for us to get used to an NHL rink--not just because the ice surface is smaller but because there's so little room behind the net. It's really tough for the defenseman in that way. All of the variables are there to make it distracting if you want it to be distracting, but it's the same for both clubs.
Parker was especially intrigued at how the rink tricks the eye. "The other thing I noticed when I came out on the ice is that because of the setting on the field, the rink looks tiny. The ice surface looks even smaller and even more narrow than an NHL rink. It obviously isn't, but it looks different. That's all perception."
The BU coaching legend believed that the ice surface itself would be just fine on Friday night. "The ice was fair [on Wednesday afternoon], but there had been a couple of groups out there before us. It's outdoor ice. These people will have great ice for us on Friday night. The only thing that might make the ice bad is if it snows. Then they might have to have the Zamboni come out an extra time during a period."
While the game is a historic event for college hockey and the Terrier program, all parties involved are fully aware that this is not a just-for-laughs exhibition. The game counts in the Hockey East standings, and BU is looking to right itself after an extremely disappointing fall semester. That said, an unusually long break seems to have recharged the team, which pummeled UMass 7-3 last Saturday. Beating archrival BC is satisfying under any circumstances, but doing so at Fenway Park and with much ground to gain in the standings represents a huge opportunity for the squad.
"For us right now, every game is big," Terrier captain Kevin Shattenkirk said. "It's obviously a huge game for us. We have a chance to play on a big stage, and we're all going to be excited. We have to just remember that it is a league game and how important that is to us right now."
If Wednesday gave the team an opportunity to drink in the atmosphere and gape at the Green Monster, Friday will feature much higher adrenalin levels and a sharper focus on the task at hand. Certainly it will be a larger live audience than any player on either team has ever experienced. "Friday night's going to be that much different when there's close to 40,000 people watching," Shattenkirk said. "Hopefully guys can get past that. I think it's great that we played at Madison Square Garden earlier this year to get used to a larger crowd. Being used to that may work in our favor in terms of getting past the shock value.
"There's no question in my mind that everyone in the locker room is going to be ready to play because there's a lot on the line in a great setting."
"I can't wait, and I know the guys feel the exact same way," Gryba said
With Gryba in the lineup and high stakes on the line for the Terriers, you can bet that it will be a matter of a few short minutes before someone breaks up the no-hitter.
Scott Weighart is a Senior Writer for US College Hockey Online and author of Burn The Boats: A Seven-Championship Season For Boston University Hockey.The book can be purchased at Agganis Arena, the BU Bookstore, and online at www.buhockeybook.com. A portion of each sale goes directly to the BU hockey program.
