Lowell Devils

It was hockey week in Acton for me this week, as I got in three live games. I haven’t seen MOL in days, and have been living off beer and rink pizza, but these are the sacrifices one makes to make three games in three nights. One of these days I should write about where to go for good food and drink at all the arenas I have been to. Remind me on that. The adventure started on Wednesday in Lowell as the Devils took on the Springfield Falcons. I have seen the Falcons a couple of times this season, and they are pretty fun to watch. Robbie Scremp is a great hockey player, and they have Ryan Flinn, who in my opinion is one of the most intimidating looking guys in all of hockey. He just looks mean eh? Apparently, he isn’t mean looking enough for Lowell’s Mark Fraser to want a piece. Lowell went down 3-0 in a very lackluster start. Fraser had enough and challenged Flinn near the blueline in front of the visiting penalty box. They started out sizing each other up and a little spin cycle action. As they got started, Flinn and Fraser each traded some right hands, and Fraser managed to get the front of Flinn’s jersey up over his face. Sightless, Flinn threw a couple and tried to squirm his head back through the opening so he could see, and try to get Fraser. Fraser didn’t use the advantage of Flinn being sightless as well as I would have liked, but did get a couple in when he had the advantage. When Flinn got his sight back he threw an uppercut that missed by this much, and had it connected, Fraser would have been lights out. Sadly he missed, and that was it. The stripes separated them, and off they went. I call the fight a surprising win for Mark Fraser. The ending of this game was easily the strangest thing I have ever seen at a hockey game. Evah. Lowell had been down 3-0, but fought their way back to tie the game at 3-3. OT came and went, and they went on to the shootout. With Lowell having a 1-0 advantage and Springfield being down to their last opportunity to force sudden death shootout, Viacheslav Trukhno came in on Frank Doyle with ideas on being the game saver. Well, Doyle looked like he stopped him, as it appeared he put a rebound in the net which is a no no in the shootout. Referee Terry Koharski waived the goal off, but the puck wound up in the back of the net. After conferring with the scorer’s table briefly, he skated over to Lowell’s bench. He must have told them they won because Devil players started pouring off the bench to congratulate Frank Doyle. The Springfield bench was upset and called Koharski over for a little chat. So after a little discussion, Koharski decided that Springfield had in fact scored and he motioned to some of the remaining players on Lowell’s bench they need to get back. So, if you are having trouble following, he changed his mind. Lowell comes back. They go first in sudden death and don’t score. Obviously Springfield comes down and scores on their first sudden death shot, wins the game 4-3. In all my years of watching hockey I have never seen anything like that. I was under the impression as the referee, even if you blow a call and you know you’ve blown it, you stick to it. One never ever changes their mind right? Truly a bizarre moment in my hockey watching life. Game two of the week came to me via my good friend and birthday girl Bridget. She e-mailed me Thursday evening and asked if I wanted to go to the Bruins and Capitals game that evening. The answer? Yes. Yes I did. Thanks yo, and happy birthday. Jimbo and I saddled up for Boston at 5, and arrived at Halftime Pizza at 6. Good timing indeed. With a large cheese secured, and a 25oz. Bud to wash it down we settled in for the fights. The tape of the evening was all Dennis Bonvie, so I was pretty psyched. It was all his fights as a Bruin, and his only NHL goal was on the tape as well. It got me to thinking about the Bruins team of 2000-01, and ’01-’02 when Bonvie was there. Those were a couple of my favorite teams because you could tell they cared about each other, and were very tight. Those guys were always sticking up for one another. Once inside, we got our seats and the game began. Boston was soundly outplayed in the fist, but Milan Lucic was looking to get a spark going in the building by taking on Capitals defenseman, John Erksine. I thought the fight was a decent scrap. Both guys are very heavy punchers and it showed as Erksine landed a very hard right to Lucic’s temple, and the big 19 year old went down. Win Erksine, and it was the first one I think I’ve seen Lucic lose all season. Nice job though in taking him on and trying to get the boys started. This seems like a good spot to mention, I like the Bochenski for Hnidy swap a lot. Hnidy is a gritty defenseman (which in case no one noticed, is exactly what Boston needs), and Bo wasn’t playing anyway. Good swap. After the game we went to Sports Grille Boston for 1 (4) and then back to the office so Jim could get his car. Obviously we went to Hooligan’s for a night cap (4) and on home. I left Jimbo in good hands at the bar, and got out of there before I thought Karaoke was a good idea. As an aside, Jimbo was not well Friday and couldn’t come to game three of the week. This is called a segue. Game three was a Radiators Team event at the DCU Centre. I took my team, and their significant others, as well as honorary Radiator Kara to the Worcester Sharks and Manchester Monarchs. Manchester was killing Worcester, and I am really surprised there were no fights. I thought for sure Worcester would try to start something after going down 3-1, and then 4-1, but nothing. There was even an instance with 2.6 seconds where there was some pushing and shoving where I thought both coaches might give the tough guys a tap, but alas, nothing. All in all, it was an outstanding week. If I wasn’t afraid MOL would leave me taking the van while I keep the dog, I’d do it all the time. But really, do I need to give her another reason?