BOWLING GREEN, OHIO — “Be careful, Chris,” I think to myself, “Act natural; don’t give yourself away.”
It’s Saturday night and I’m at the Bowling Green State University Ice Arena. There’s a hockey game tonight: BGSU versus UAF, and excluding the team, I’m the only UAF supporter in the entire Arena.
I am a lone soldier, and Charlie is everywhere. Supporting my team in a hostile environment will be a dangerous task. One slip-up and every student in the stands will be on me like Oreos at a fat camp.
The referees came onto the ice first, then the teams. The referees get more boos than the Nanooks. Once the national anthem is over and the game starts, nobody around me sits down.
Thirty seconds into the game, Nanook Landon Novotney, with some help from Tyler Eckford, got a shot through BG’s goalie. Nobody is prepared for a goal so soon, and the crowd becomes a little bewildered. The Nanooks lost the previous night 4-2, and everyone was expecting a similar game.
The puck changed hands for half of the period with only a disallowed high-sticked goal by Bowling Green. Soon after, someone got hit in the head with a puck. The victim laughed it off like nothing important was damaged.
An even better scene occurred when Todd McIlrath of BG attempted to slap the puck in a straight line to the goal. The pass was soft, and he was positioned well, but he missed so hard that he ended up falling on his face from the force of his follow-through as the puck slid right past him.
Soon after, BG had UAF on the defensive, as the Falcons took a shot every ten seconds for about a minute, but not one made it through Alaska’s defenses.
The second period started out the same as the first when Steve Vanoosten scored a goal less than a minute and a half in, with assists from seniors Aaron Lee and Ryan Muspratt.
I want to cheer, but any outburst would surely be the end of me. These college students in the stands are standing up for a reason. There’s hostile energy in the building from the Falcons having yet to score.
Fortunately, the mob was placated, but only slightly, as Derek Whitmore scored on Wylie Rogers five minutes into the second period.
A penalty had been called on a BG player which incited so much animosity and slurs toward the referees that you’d think a hate crime was being committed.
Afterwards the Falcons regained the majority of puck control and took advantage of it by taking as many shots at the goal as they could. The Nanooks, choosing accuracy over quantity, used the opportunities they had and eventually got another goal from sophomore Dion Knelson, assisted by Novotney, two minutes before the end of the period. The goal was hotly contested by the crowd, but after a review, it was failed to be proven that it was kicked in.
At that point I was glad I’m secretly from the rival school and not a referee.
The third period starts with both teams down a player.
Things get hairy, as the Nanooks get four separate penalties in the last period. But no matter how many power-plays the Falcons have, they can’t seen to pull it together enough to get a goal, although they were significantly close a number of times, and the only thing stopping a goal was either a last-second mistake on the part of the Falcons or a quicker Nanook hand at knocking away the loose puck.
Keeping my celebratory yelling in synch with the rest of the crowd was difficult for the more spectacular saves.
Overall, UAF got twice as many penalties as BG. As much as the crowd disliked the opposing team, by the third period, dissent occurred in the ranks, and some BG students were getting frustrated towards their own players, especially considering that the Nanooks had been beaten the night before.
In the last three minutes, the Falcons got desperate enough to pull their goalie, which was promptly rewarded with a goal for UAF with thirty seconds left on the clock, made by Adam Naglich and assisted by Braden Walls.
Coach DelCastillo said what made the difference between Friday’s loss and Saturday’s win was “we played a simpler game, and that’s what helped us.” The game looked like a match between a bar-room brawler and a prize-fighter, with BG taking swings left and right, and UAF assessing the situation and letting the opportunities come to them.
Final score: 4-1, UAF wins.