What It's Like to Go to the Final of the Frozen Four

I had the (for me) unique experience of attending two out of three games of the Men's Frozen Four this past weekend. (That's the championship series for college hockey, for those of you who don't know what the Frozen Four is, which I assume is just about everyone.) The championship was contested by Boston College, Maine, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Yep, those are all rockin' places, aren't they? BC and Wisconsin made it to the finals, just so you can follow along.

Anyway, we were there to cheer on my mister's team, Wisconsin. Yes, I know he didn't go to college there. Yes, he knows this too. I don't understand it either, but we cheer for Bucky Badger. This is just The Way It Is, and I'm used to it now.

For those of you who will probably never attend such an event, and in the home state of the team who eventually won the thing at that, this is sort of what the final game was like:

Red.

Wait, that's not red enough.

RED

Imagine that everywhere in front of you, and that's what it was like.

Where there wasn't red, there was usually white.

Where there wasn't that, there were either a) bitter Maine fans in light blue, b) bitter North Dakota fans in jerseys that kept making me think they were Notre Dame fans, because they use the same N over D logo or c) hopeful Boston College fans, woefully outnumbered but plucky, nonetheless.

My seat was right next to two of the bitter light blue bedecked Maine fans. They, going steadfastly against the theory that you want the team that beat your team to win, if only to prove that it took the best team to beat your team, vehemently rooted against Wisconsin in the finals and glared at everyone surrounding them when Wisconsin scored both of their goals against BC. Now, I understand bitter. Heck, the Yankees will keep my Orioles out of the playoffs from now until doomsday and I'd rather stub my toe than see the Yankees win a game, but those two people could put up a 'bitter' that puts mine to shame.

Skating. Hitting. Your standard hockey fare.

Great goaltending at both ends. The poor BC goalie made something like 37 saves, and they lost. That's a lot of saves, and he was a big reason BC stayed in the game so long. 37, as it happens, as well as being a very important number from Clerks, is also the number of times it sounded as though the entire arena came to life and said, "Oh!" It is quite a thing to hear that many rabid fans express their wish that the puck could have gone in the net instead of the goalie's glove or harmlessly into the corner on the rebound. It is not, however, quite as much of a thing to hear than...

"Sieve! Sieve! Sieve!" This is yelled, nay, rhythmically chanted, at the opposing goalie when Wisconsin scores a goal. This is a Thing at Badger games, one of two main Wisconsin Things I will tell you about. Those poor opposing goalies have to endure a special song that is played after every Wisconsin goal, and "Sieve!" is yelled at the end of each line, and then at the end, it's said over and over until everyone tires of it. I can't imagine being the person standing there taking that abuse. I have no idea where you put your desire to punch everyone yelling it.

In fact, at the semifinal game between Maine and Wisconsin, Maine pulled their goaltender late in the third period to get an extra guy on the ice. An empty-net goal was scored, and then the goalie came back on the ice. Yep, you guessed it. The arena yelled "Sieve!" at the poor guy, and he hadn't even been on the ice when the goal was scored. I should note that it is also a Wisconsin Thing to chant, "Bet-ter Goal-ie" when the goaltender gets pulled. I don't think too many people did it that night, as the excitement for the impending win and trip to the final game was imminent and it was largely overlooked in the crowd's excitement.

The other main Thing that happens during a Wisconsin game, and it took me some time to realize exactly what was being said, happens as players come out of the box at the end of a penalty. The world's only arena announcer doubling as a straight man says something like, "Penalty to Boston College number 3 is now over, and teams are at equal strength." (Yes, later I could hear the italics, because the guy says it funny because he know's he's delivering the Gracie Allen line in this little running joke.) The arena rises to life and speaks as one enormous entity, "That's debatable!" Ah yes, that fine midwestern humor.

So the finals. Most of the game is just a blur of good hockey, one really glaring error that led to the BC goal, and a lot of good goaltending. I'll skip right to the end. It's 2-1 Badgers late (and I mean LATE) in the third period and the goaltender is pulled for the sixth man. There's this disorganized looking flurry of activity near Wisconsin's goal, and a shot screams in with about two seconds to go and it bounces off the crossbar. In the arena, no one was 100% sure as time expired that Wisconsin had won. If that puck had gone across the line before it bounced back out, it was tied up and there was overtime to be played. We were fairly certain based on the angle that the puck bounced off and where it landed that it hadn't gone in and Wisconsin did indeed start their celebration right away, but it did get reviewed. It was kind of sad to see the BC players waiting out there on the ice to see if they'd tied it up or not. Word quickly came down that it was no goal, and the sound in there was suddenly deafening.

There was initially a trophy brought out for both teams, but something weird happened and BC left the ice before theirs was presented. I don't know if the organizers meant it to happen that way , but I don't think it was some bitter, "I don't want to stay out there" kind of thing, because they all shook hands at center ice like good sports just before that. I think that BC was accidentally escorted away before the presentation, because some guy came out and spirited BC's trophy away before all the Wisconsin players were announced and the first place trophy was handed over.

All in all, I suppose I could have just written three words in this post to tell you what it was like at the Frozen Four.

Loud. Red. Sieve!