Wildcats send Sioux down Trail of Tears

Inappropriate title? Probably. But I had to use it somewhere since we won't be able to use it for a headline in Tuesday's paper and the UNH men's hockey upset of North Dakota might have been the best hockey game I've ever seen live. I say might because I can't try and compare the game five triple-overtime loss in the Stanley Cup finals last June. They were completely different games and completely different situations and it's just too much work.

Nevertheless, this game was amazing. UNH won 6-5 in overtime. Sounds intriguing already doesn't it? Well, what the score doesn't tell you is that the Wildcats were also down 5-3 halfway through the third, tied the game with 0.1 seconds left and won the game 45 seconds into overtime. It was an absolutely amazing sequence of events.

Thanks to our wonderful Multimedia Editor Meg Power, that's a short video of us at the game. Clearly, I had no idea what to do or what just happened when they scored the tying goal. It was just ridiculous.

You can check ESPN for other highlights of the game, since those plays also managed to get the #1 spot on SportsCenter's top plays. I still can't believe I was at that game. I mean, in all of hockey history, how many games have ever seen a tying goal with less than a second left? Not many. And Peter LeBlanc's goal in overtime was just awesome. Such a great shot and his cowboy-esque celebration was epic. Wow, great game.

I haven't even mentioned yet that John Buccigross and Barry Melrose were the color commentators for the game, so at one point I was mere feet away from them. I didn't get a chance to meet them, unfortunately, because the security guard and the ticket-checking people weren't exactly lenient. Sure, maybe "Can I meet John Buccigross?" wasn't the best opening line, but how else do you say, "I creepily emailed John Buccigross earlier this week in hopes of meeting him and he emailed me back and told me to stop by...can I go in?" Yeahhhh no. So that was the only part of the day that didn't work out.

I guess karma felt bad for me though because I did meet Phil Kessel, who was sitting up in the nosebleeds near us, and get his autograph. His "upper-body injury" that's keeping him out of the Bruins' games this weekend appears to be more of a "I'd-rather-watch-my-brother-play-the-most-important-games-of-his-life-so-far-rather-than-play-the-stupid-Maple-Leafs-and-Flyers-when-we-already-clinched-the-division injury." That's a long injury name...probably doesn't happen too often.

Anyway, I had to post this before I went back to Manchester tonight for the regional final between UNH and BU because if UNH loses, I would be much less excited and cheerful while writing this post. I might have even shown some sympathy to the Fighting Sioux and not kept the post title the way it is...and that's censorship. There's just no place for it on the internet.

Go Wildcats! Go Red Wings! (When don't they play the Predators?) Go banana!