Purdue Hockey @ Illinois State in Pictures

After the football game Saturday I drove just up the road to see the Purdue hockey club in action. I have heard about them for so long that I decided to see a game in person. I had a blast at the game, and the hockey team did not disappoint. This was my second hockey game shooting at, and I thought I captured a couple good pictures. I thought I would share a few on here. It is hard to get good information on the team. Players like #18 below do not show up on the Purdue hockey website. I have done my best to identify the players that I could find.

Tyler Reith during warm ups

Justin Belko for the Boilers during warm ups

Purdue Plays Hockey?

I have known that Purdue played hockey for some time now, but never got around to seeing them play until Saturday. Since 2006 I have been meaning to drive to see them play, but have not made it. They used to play at home in Danville, Illinois which is quite a drive from Northwest Indiana. On the way home from the football game in Champaign I made a slight detour to Bloomington to see the Purdue hockey team play finally. They did not play in a big arena, but rather next to it. The team played in a public skating rink that was cleared out in time for the game. At first I wondered what I was getting myself into, but once the action started it was worth it. 

Ohio State @ Ferris State Hockey Pictures Part 2

Here is the second installment of my hockey pictures from Saturday night. I really had a blast shooting from the glass. Some of those pictures made their way into this post.

Chad Billins passes the puck across ice

Ohio State @ Ferris State Hockey Pictures Part 1

Here is the first of two installments of pictures from the Ohio State Buckeyes game at Ferris State from last Saturday.

Scott Wietecha warms up before the game

Ohio State Dominates Final Period For Win

Buckeye players celebrate the game winning goal

Saturday night I was in Ewigleben Ice Arena to see Ferris State take on Ohio State. After what Ohio State did to my Boilers earlier in the day I really wanted to see them lose at hockey. Sadly they did not. I still had a great time at the game. This was my first time shooting a hockey game with my camera, and I learned a lot real fast. I know that hockey is a fast sport, but through a camera lens against the glass it is super fast. Once I got the feel for the speed down on the ice though I had a good time. Some of the pictures not included in this post will show up on this site over the next couple of days. I have about thirty other pictures that I will post in two segments. This was my first hockey game in about 3 1/2 years. I will have to see another one much quicker than that. 

The Dream is Over

The Notre Dame dream season ended tonight when Boston College beat them 4-1 in Denver. I am really disappointed, but if you had told me that I would be covering the Frozen Four on this blog at the beginning of the year I would have said that you were crazy. I like hockey. I love to go to games, but I have never had any teams that I cared about in the finals to even watch them. I watch one college team, and they defied the odds this year by getting to the title game. It figures that the year that makes history for the Irish program is also the first year that I did not attend a game. I was in Lafayette so much that it never really worked out. I may have to try and get in to a couple of games next season. I at least want to see the new banner. A season like this will do wonders to the new arena that is being planned for the Irish.
It is sad to say, but the turning point of this national title game was a call made by an official. With fifteen minutes left in the third period Notre Dame appeared to score a goal to pull within one. As the celebration began the referee announced that the call would be reviewed in the booth. As the play was being reviewed the announcers described how the burden of proof was hard to overturn in this case. The skate clearly had to be moving towards the goal for the goal to be waived off. The skate is clearly moving backwards. It looked like the Irish player wanted to kick the puck in, but he just whiffed on it. Apparently the replay judge read his mind because he overturned the goal. Later it was explained that the replay judged saw the skate moving forward. I hope he has a nice flight back to Boston. I normally don’t like to say that my team was screwed by the officials. So many other plays go into winning or losing a game. This horrible call completely changed the momentum. In the eternity that it took to make the call any momentum the Irish would have had would have been killed. Then the terrible call deflated the team. 35 seconds later the Eagles put the puck in the net to make the score 4-1. That is hard to take. The Irish never quit though. They fought hard until the end. The fans will probably always wonder what would have been if the goal had been allowed.

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