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University of Massachusets Athletics
Inside The Glass With Troy Power
October 21, 2014 | Hockey
This past week was a fun and exciting time for our hockey team. Hopping on a plane and traveling to play out of conference opponents in their venues is a cool experience that you don't get to do a lot because Hockey East schools, with the exception of Notre Dame, are geographically very close together.
On Thursday October 16, we departed for Bradley International Airport in Connecticut at 8:00 a.m. Fortunately for us, we loaded all of our hockey gear and travel bags onto a bus post-practice on Wednesday, so all we had to do once we got to the airport was receive our boarding passes and hop on the plane. Dress code for the flight was "NHL Casual" which requires all members of the team and staff to wear suits and dress shirts with the exception of a tie. This creates a professional look that started off our business trip in the appropriate manor.
Once we landed in Detroit, our bus that departed on Wednesday night picked us up and we continued out journey to the Michigan State campus. Lunch was waiting for us at the rink after the hour-long bus ride and it didn't take long for 24 sub sandwiches to disappear in a matter of minutes. Our "feel good Thursday" practice ran from about 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. and all members of the team hopped off the ice to do a pre-scout video of our opponents around 6:30.
After video, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant before checking into the hotel that evening. As you can imagine, it was nice to relax and get some rest after a long day of travel.
Friday night was the home opener for Michigan State and the atmosphere in the rink was fun to play in. The school had a student section that wrapped around our defensive zone and included a part of the Michigan State band that would play in between whistles. Unfortunately, we did not get the outcome we wanted in the first matchup and ended up losing the game 5-3. Although we lost, we watched video and learned from the mistakes we made and did our best to correct them for our second game of the weekend.
Saturday night was a huge, character win for us and was not only our first win of the season, but our first on the road, which is nice to get early in the year. The game had its ups and downs and could be highlighted in many different ways. Steven Iacobellis led the way with a two-goal night and had contributions on all four of our goals in the 4-3 win. In addition to that, his linemates Ray Pigozzi and Patrick Lee added three-point nights that included Pat Lee's first career goal with just 9.9 seconds left in the game. Between the pipes Henry Dill earned his first collegiate win and provided us with a great goaltending that was vital to our success.
All in all, it took all 20 members of the team doing their own individual jobs that led us to our first win in an exciting fashion. Each game we have continued to make strides to where we want to be as a hockey team and I am excited to see the progression continue over the course of the year. As I mentioned in my previous blog, Freshman contributions will be a key part in our success this year so to get great goaltending from Henry, two goals from Keith Burchett, another goal from Jake Horton, as well as the game winner from Patrick Lee, they are certainly contributing and giving our team a chance to win every night which is great to see.
Without a doubt the long road trip to Michigan State was a great bonding experience that brought our team closer to one another. We got to experience the thrill of victory and realize how good it feels to accomplish what we set out for. As we move forward this week in practice we will need to continue to remain hungry for success and have a road warrior's mentality heading into two, huge Hockey East games this weekend as we play at Northeastern and Boston College in their barns. Thanks for your continued support, Go UMass!
Check out the video from our weekend trip below!
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Blog #5 - 10/16/14
Blog #4 - 10/07/14
Blog #3 - 9/30/14
Blog #2 - 9/23/14
Blog #1 - 9/16/14