For several years now, I've been aiming to go to Yale hockey game because it's the one sport (apparently besides volleyball) that we're pretty good at. Whenever I give tours, I tell people to go to hockey games because the atmosphere is supposed to be electric, and yet, it's taken me four years to get here. This may be that the Whale (Ingalls Rink) is halfway up Science Hill, though in reality, it's actually relatively close to campus, or it may be that every time I've gone to a sporting event, we've lost (sometimes quite horribly in fact).
But this night was absolutely awesome. We played Clarkson and won 5-1, and although for the most part, the team looked like they were just very haphazardly searching for the puck, there were shining moments of great teamwork and subsequent goals. From what I saw, we just happened to have a better goalie than Clarkson did, as there were some tense moments where they got quite close to scoring, but our guy prevailed.
I also realized that sports fans are rabid. They don't just cheer for our team; they boo down the other team, and demoralizing the opposition is as much a winning strategy as playing well. In hockey, the idea is to make the other goalie feel every goal he's let through. So the band would play our fight song and they'd chant to the other guy, "It's all your fault!" Poor goalie! One older alum even came a little late to the game, sat behind us with his friends, and after a few minutes, noted to his friend, "I want us to score so I can tell him whose fault it is."
So even though I was ecstatic every time we scored, I couldn't help but feel bad for this other goalie, who seemed pretty frustrated by the start of the third quarter.
But this night was absolutely awesome. We played Clarkson and won 5-1, and although for the most part, the team looked like they were just very haphazardly searching for the puck, there were shining moments of great teamwork and subsequent goals. From what I saw, we just happened to have a better goalie than Clarkson did, as there were some tense moments where they got quite close to scoring, but our guy prevailed.
I also realized that sports fans are rabid. They don't just cheer for our team; they boo down the other team, and demoralizing the opposition is as much a winning strategy as playing well. In hockey, the idea is to make the other goalie feel every goal he's let through. So the band would play our fight song and they'd chant to the other guy, "It's all your fault!" Poor goalie! One older alum even came a little late to the game, sat behind us with his friends, and after a few minutes, noted to his friend, "I want us to score so I can tell him whose fault it is."
So even though I was ecstatic every time we scored, I couldn't help but feel bad for this other goalie, who seemed pretty frustrated by the start of the third quarter.
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