Princeton’s Hobey Baker Memorial Rink
Last Updated on Friday, 04 January 2013 11:06
By Kevin Hartzell
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
Wednesday, Dec. 5 – This year the NBC Sports Network has been televising a NCAA college game of the week and sometimes more than one. On this particular Wednesday night, they are televising Dartmouth and Vermont. One of my favorite players of all-time, Matt Lindblad, plays for Dartmouth. Matt is a native of Chicago and had a 70-point season for us in Sioux Falls. Not only is he a proficient scorer, but he is one of the finest defensive players I have ever coached. On top of it all, he is a great young man. He went to Dartmouth and made an immediate impact as their leading scorer as a freshman. He is now in his junior year, so getting to watch him on TV was a treat. Dartmouth wins this game 4-2 and Matt gets two assists.
Friday, Dec. 7 – Quinnipiac is back on the ice with a weekend home-and-home series with Princeton. Princeton and Quinnipiac are travel partners in the ECAC, meaning that most weekends, they travel to a common destination, such as Clarkson and St. Lawrence, which are in close proximity. One team plays one team on Friday; they switch and play the other the next night. The ECAC is interesting as it has some natural geographic partners. The other travel partners are Cornell/Colgate, Union/RPI, Yale/Brown, Clarkson/St. Lawrence and Dartmouth/Harvard. It works well. When teams play their travel partners, it is a home-and-home thing like it is this weekend for Quinnipiac and Princeton.
On this Friday night, Quinnipiac is back home after six consecutive road games and is holding an eight-game unbeaten streak. Quinnipiac is the dominant team and wins 3-1. They could have won by more.
Saturday, Dec. 8 – Tonight we visit Princeton. This will be a fun night on a number of levels. Eric’s cousins are coming to watch him play. They live just north of Philadelphia and the trip to Princeton is just over an hour. For cousin Amanda, it will be her first time watching hockey in person.
For me, I have long wanted to visit this great and old school. Princeton is a private college founded in 1746 and is one of nine colonial colleges, meaning they were founded before the American Revolution. During the American Revolution, the British actually took over and occupied the main building of the university only to be chased out by General George Washington. The Continental Congress actually met in this very same main building to do the nation’s business for a short time, meaning Princeton actually served for a time as our nation’s capital. The history of this university is something special.
The arena, named after their esteemed alumnus Hobey Baker, is an arena unlike any other. To see the unique brick both on the exterior and also on the interior of the arena, one might believe that at some point many years ago, George Washington along with his troops and horses may have just occupied this building. It looks historic and yet within all this historic looking décor sits a hockey rink with no more than about eight rows of bleacher seats around most of the arena. The one end zone has a large second deck hosting their band and many fans overlooking the end where the opposition goaltender must defend twice.
This night Princeton comes out aggressive; I suspect wanting to show better than the night before. Shots after the first period are about 10 apiece but there is no score. Quinnipiac gets on the scoreboard first off a faceoff and then Quinnipiac d-man Mike Dalhuisen, a native of Holland and former Lincoln Stars alum, scored the next two to give Quinnipiac a 3-0 win. The shutout for Eric tied a school record for career shut-outs and more importantly gave Quinnipiac their best start in their ECAC history at 8-0 and a national top 10 ranking. It was a great game for Eric’s cousins to come see him play. Quinnipiac goes into the Christmas break with a 10-game unbeaten streak. I am sure they would prefer to keep on playing.
Saturday, Dec. 15 – After the Princeton/Quinnipiac series, MaryBeth and I traveled to South Carolina to see our son Brandon who is pursuing a life in the golf world. He plays mini-tour events in and around South Carolina and also caddies at the Ocean Course on Kiawa Island, home of the 2012 PGA Championship.
On this Saturday night, I get to go see an ECHL game for the first time in my life. It is the first place Gwinnett (Georgia) Gladiators against the hometown South Carolina Stingrays (Charleston). Gwinnett’s lineup includes Cory Fienhage of Apple Valley and Mike Lee of Roseau who is also statistically one of the couple best goaltenders in the league. For South Carolina, one of my favorite small forwards from Cloquet plays a lot, Tyler Johnson. I saw him play many times throughout his youth and during his collegiate career at Colorado College. Also on the Sting-Ray roster are Andrew Sackrison (St. Louis Park) and in goal this night is Rochester native Jeff Jakaitis.
I expected to see Mike Lee starting and playing but he did not. He was separated from his team’s bench, sitting in a runway leading to the rink but separate from the bench by about 15 feet. During a media time out in the first period I stopped down to say “hi” and found out that he was pretty sick. His voice was raspy and I understood immediately it was a good night for Mike to rest.
His first-place Gwinnet team scored a late goal then won in overtime. The game was fine with lots of good players but in my opinion it did not have enough of the high-end offensive talent that makes a game exciting. I believe a quality goalie like Mike Lee will dominate this level and it is just a matter of time until we see him in the American Hockey League and hopefully someday in the NHL.
We are all off now unitl the 29th and 30th when we will watch Quinnipiac host the Dean Blais-led Nebraska-Omaha Mustangs.
