michigan state at notre dame, hcokey PET

[Screw_Michigan]

i attended the game between #9 michigan state and #6 notre dame today in south fucking bend and i thought i'd share some photos with you sick fucks. i want to give mad props to the FUCKING CREW for inspiring me to do this thread as well as Bill-DC at tards.net for his washington crapitals practice PET.

you'll have to forgive me for many of the blurry pics. i got my first digital camera for christmas and i'm a total digital photo rookie. couple guys next to me had $1,000 lenses and cameras that took seven photos in one second. i was very jealous.


it was a pretty boring game for the most part, notre dame and michigan state are two great teams that can play defense with the best of 'em. from what i read, friday's game was pretty much like sunday, so i wasn't really surprised. both nd and msu have been in recent funks since christmas and the two are among the four top teams in the ccha. down 1-0, ryan thang scored for notre dame with a shot deflection off the corner of the goal frame to tie the game at 1-1 with ~30 seconds left. nd played uninspired hockey and msu had been shutting them down defensively. nd kicked msu's ass in the ot and had a couple golden chances to win the game, but the game ended in a tie.

i don't care what anyone says, regular season shootouts are as lame as CTRL-KFC Paul in real life. the ending of today's game was outstanding, who gives a fuck if it's a tie?


the irish doing drills during warmups. big game for both clubs.



shooting drill during warmups.



nd junior goaltender jordan pearce taking some warmup shots.



view of the press box and the north side of the "ice arena" at the joyce center. cramped press box, but great view. ever since i worked my first game at nd in 01, they've always had free papa john's pizza and coke in the press box. i'm not picky. RACK THAT.



my alma mater, western michigan, appropriately located last on the banner display. they fucking suck this year and their coach, around 20 games under .500 career at the school, just got a 3-year extension in the offseason. what a god damn disgrace.



starting lineup time for the spartans. note how i didn't call them "sparty," which is a fucking travesty of a nickname.



the national anthem. place is full. RACK college hcokey in america!



"time to finish the sweep, boys! get it done!"


msu junior goaltender jeff lerg had a shutout with over 25 saves before he gave up the game tying goal with 30 seconds to play. dude is 5-6 but plays like he's 6-4. metro detroit guy. rack him.


nd crashing the net for a good scoring opportunity.


chicago native dan kissel moving the puck up the boards.


junior defenseman brandon gentile getting a shot on net.


lot of extra curricular activity and shit talking going on behind the net after the whistle. these teams are in direct competition for the upper tier of the league and they hate each other. RACK THAT. #9 also scored the game tying goal late in teh game.


alternate captain tim kennedy, buffalo native, talks to CSTV during the first intermission. kennedy has 35 career goals and a +17 mark.


this is how they dry the gloves during the intermission. wish we had this shit when i was in high school.


notre dame won its first regular season and ccha tournament championship last season and made the ncaa tourney for the second time in school history. not a lot of success on a large scale but they have the best coach in college hockey and are due to get a new arena in a few years. they have all the right ingredients for a dominant program in college hockey.


nd stick rack.


nd coach jeff jackson (center) won two national titles with lake superior state in sault ste. marie, mich., in 92 and 94. his programs at lake state were some of the most dominant in ccha history. take note that lake state is the smallest public school in michigan with just over 2,000 undergrad. what he accomplished at lake state during his tenure cannot be understated. WAR BEATING BOSTON U IN THE NATIONAL TITLE GAME IN 94 BY 10 GOALS.


a play on net from the blue line.


nd goaltender jordan pearce skating around during a break in action.


this is slightly blurry, but is one of my favorite shots. pearce going side to side on a shot going wide. lots of side to side action today.


pearce.


TVO was at the game today. RACK HIM.


somebody just got PWNED behind the net.


getting tight in the corner.


another one of my favorite shots. msu junior forward tim crowder getting a blast off from inside the blue line. he's a bad motherfucker.


more action along the far boards.


nd junior erik condra talking to cstv during the second intermission. pretty much notre dame's best player, leads the team with 27 points.


pearce taking away the low shot on action in the slot.



msu coach rick comley (second from right) won a national title at northern michigan in 91 and another with msu in 07, the second national title for msu and first since 86. great hockey mind who took a lot of shit for not doing well after taking over for ron mason, who was great but was plagued with the same big game problems as comley. really nice guy too.


view from behind the nd bench, getting ready for the third period.


retaping sticks during the third intermission. jeff petry (left) is a metro detroit boy.


the irish rack the fans after an exciting finish.

college athletics are special and college hockey is as good as it gets. a great day in norhtern indiana.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Rack it.

[Goober McTuber]

It’s not the Kohl Center, but rack it anyway.

[Mustang]

"....looks nice and sells hockey...." -Joe McGrath

Two things ND has that IU doesn't....hockey and lacrosse....both of which I'd be at front and center if they did.

[Mister Bushice]

TVO was at the game today. RACK HIM.

:D :D :D

[Screw_Michigan]

RACK the PET. How the hell did you get some of those shots? Good stuff, dog.

even though i was credentialed for the game, most of it has to do with the fact the joyce center is so antiquated and inadequate for hockey. it was not built for hockey, it's pretty much a rec hall where they decided to put the ice when they decided to start a team back in the day. in fact, the first nd hockey game i ever attended in 01 had a intramural basketball tournament going on behind the blue curtain. many of the areas which would be off limits to fans and press at other rinks (like the tunnel where the locker rooms and equipment rooms are located) are common areas where fans have to file through during intermissions to get to the concession stands and restrooms. in contrast to lawson ice arena in kalamazoo, lawson's locker room area is inaccessable because there fans aren't necessitated to travel through there to leave the stands and exit the arena.

the action shots i took from the corner because that's where you're going to get the best shots and it never sucks to see someone get rocked right in front of you. plus, the hot blonde from WSBT was there shooting her 20 minutes of game film for the 11 p.m. news. FUCK. should have taken a couple photos of her. edit:

this bitch was also there as well, she works for fox28 in elkahrt. this photo sucks, shes' way hotter in person.

although the ushers block off walk-through access when the teams are entering and leaving the dressing rooms, it's pretty much free reign. anyone with some tact and some good timing could get many of those photos. the only real time i had some exclusive access was when i took a bunch of photos from the nd players bench during the second intermission. the pictures ended up turning out shitty, so i didn't post them. i had to convince an usher to let me out there, which was pretty surprising he was cool with it. most of the ushers at the joyce center are stuck up assholes, but you get some cool ones once in a while.

[MuchoBulls]

RACK the hell out of the PET and Screw_Michigan.

[RumpleForeskin]

Nice pics, SM. I had the fortune to see some hockey played at that same venue when I was 14. My dad and I originally flew up to see Laetnner, Hurley, and Hill take on the Irish when they had LaPhonso Ellis. Ellis was benched for academic reasons that game and Notre Dame only came within 7 points late in the second half only to see Duke close it out with a final run.

Back to the hockey, that was actually my first ever hockey game to see live and it was between two smaller colleges (DIII perhaps). Can't remember the schools, but it was exciting to say the least.

Rack bringing back some old memories for me, SM.

[Adelpiero]

notre dame have blues prospect erik cole.


he could be one hell of a physical dman by the time he's done at ND

[Screw_Michigan]

Back to the hockey, that was actually my first ever hockey game to see live and it was between two smaller colleges (DIII perhaps). Can't remember the schools, but it was exciting to say the least.

Rack bringing back some old memories for me, SM.

the way notre dame treated the hockey program in the past was embarrassing and what is commonly referred to as the dark era of irish hockey. ND dropped varsity hockey for the 83-84 season and didn't reinstate scholarships until the 92-93 season when it rejoined the ccha. as a non-scholarship independent, they would play the club schools and local d-3 programs, but as the independent team got better, their egos got bigger and the started to play ccha programs, which of course, kicked their ass.

[Screw_Michigan]

notre dame have blues prospect erik cole.


he could be one hell of a physical dman by the time he's done at ND

no surprise there. cole played for the u.s. world junior team this year and is a big reason why the team went 2-2 prior to this weekend. he's probably their #1 d-man and his absence was a big factor.

[Douchebag]

i want to give mad props to the FUCKING CREW for inspiring me to do this thread as well as Bill-DC at tards.net for his washington crapitals practice PET.

who in the living mother of FUCK do you think you are parading for THE CREW, assblaster? i don't know you and i sure as shit don't fucking LIKE you.

next time i make a roadie to the depressing SHITBOX that is south bend, i'm looking you up you GAY FAGGOT

[Terry in Crapchester]

Back to the hockey, that was actually my first ever hockey game to see live and it was between two smaller colleges (DIII perhaps). Can't remember the schools, but it was exciting to say the least.

Rack bringing back some old memories for me, SM.

the way notre dame treated the hockey program in the past was embarrassing and what is commonly referred to as the dark era of irish hockey. ND dropped varsity hockey for the 83-84 season and didn't reinstate scholarships until the 92-93 season when it rejoined the ccha. as a non-scholarship independent, they would play the club schools and local d-3 programs, but as the independent team got better, their egos got bigger and the started to play ccha programs, which of course, kicked their ass.

I was there as an eyewitness for part of that.

The summer before my freshman year, ND mailed to me season ticket applications for football, mens' basketball and hockey. At the time, one could have made the case that hockey was the #3 sport at ND, after football and mens' basketball.

What a difference a year made, however, in this case. During my freshman year, there were constant reports that ND would drop hockey completely, because it wasn't earning enough money to pay for itself (sup, womens' basketball, and countless other sports on both the mens' and womens' side of the equation). That, of course, got the dander up for many students, including many ('sup, me) who hadn't much cared about the hockey team up to that point. I remember going to see us beat then-#1 Bowling Green on a Friday night, the first and only hockey game I attended at ND. Not long after that, the Administration made the announcement that hockey was being demoted to a club-level sport. The scholarship players would be losing their schollies (although ND allowed those players to transfer, how awfully nice of them), and the sport wasn't even varsity-level the following year. Year after that, ND returned to varsity level in hockey, albeit without scholarships. As you pointed out, they routinely beat up on the DII and DIII schools, but got spanked playing Division I schools with scholarships.

Not surprisingly, this was a major topic of the school newspaper during my freshman year, and there also was a somewhat humorous angle they took on it. Every year, on April Fool's Day, they published a spoof of themselves somewhat similar to The Onion. At the time, one of the big news stories was John DeLorean engaging in drug trafficking in an effort to bail out his financially troubled automobile company. The school newspaper ran a spoof on that involving the hockey team, with then-ND coach Lefty Smith in the John DeLorean role.

A guy who lived in my dorm wrote for the school newspaper. Every year, some of his friends, including his roommate, played a prank on him of some sort or another around his birthday. That year, they enlisted the help of the newspaper's editor, and sent him to LaPorte, IN (location chosen because it was roughly halfway between ND's campus and Chicago, I guess they felt a little too guilty to send him all the way to Chicago). Believe it or not, there was a Holiday Inn in LaPorte, if memory serves. The ruse was that he was being sent there to cover a press conference in which a wealthy alumnus was announcing plans to make a donation to ND for the purpose of saving the hockey program. Of course, there was no press conference.

Rack the PET, btw.