Sunday, February 6, 2011
On the eve of the biggest game in KU basketball I would like to talk about hockey. While most people are focused on the game Bill Self and his players have to win tonight, many people missed another contest. Last Thursday the Independence Center was the home of the Border Showdown On Ice.
My main experience with hockey up to last week was the movie “Miracle” and watching the Florida Panthers with my dad when I was three. All I remember is that everything smelled funny and they had really good ice cream. But last Thursday I made the drive to Independence, Mo. to check out the KU/MU hockey game. Why? Because I wanted to see people hit each other.
I mean, hockey is supposed to be the sport where tough guys are tough guys. They are supposed to slam each other into walls and no player is supposed to have a full set of teeth. I figured that if the fans at the KU/MU game got into some knockout brawls, these hockey players would be pretty fun to watch.
The Independence Center was a little far from packed, but quite a few fans did show up dressed up in their teams colors.
When the teams skated onto the ice, KU fans cheered for the Jayhawks and booed the players dressed in black and gold, and the MU fans did the same for their teams. It felt like a good old-fashioned border war.
And the players noticed it too.
“When they step on the ice it’s a big deal,” coach Tom Prendergast said. “When they step on the ice in front of an archrival it’s huge.”
The emotions carried the University of Kansas to a 2-0 lead and Jayhawk fans were rocking. There were signs and chants. The players seemed to enjoy their larger audience.
“It kind of pumps you up,” Freshman Schilar Kessler said.
At this point I realized that hockey was kind of elegant. When the players weren’t slamming into each other on the ice, with padded guys carrying around big sticks, I knew, somewhere in the back of my mind, that hockey was a little more than an all out brute fest, but I never really saw it illustrated in person.
While I was envisioning the hockey players skating to a beefed up version of “Swan Lake," Missouri scored two goals and it was a tied game. It was then that hockey turned into hockey. KU players started to slam MU down like the Lawrence burning thugs that they were (or their ancestors were). There were fights and people getting put in the penalty box. At the end of the game I wasn’t going to scan the ice for missing teeth.
Unfortunately for KU fans, Missouri beat Kansas. They scored two more unanswered goals that gave them the 4-2 win.
When the players walked passed me on the way to the locker room, with their heads hung and tired eyes, I realized that this loss, to them, was like losing to Missouri at home tonight. This was their big game and they let a two-point lead slip away from them.
“We look forward to this game all year, both teams do,” Senior forward Price Duncan said.
Unfortunately for the seniors this was their last opportunity, pending a playoff match to beat Missouri players to a pulp, but the rest of the team will only have to wait a year for their chance.
— Edited by Brittany Nelson
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