The Gopher Burrow

Mariucci Arena

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Opened: 1993

Seating Capacity: 10,000

The next ice arena I will be reflecting on in my blog is the Mariucci Arena, which is home to the Minnesota Gophers men’s and women’s ice hockey teams.

This season, our team was invited to play in the Mariucci Classic tournament, which is hosted during holiday season every year. It is a four-team tournament where the two winners from Friday night play for the championship on Saturday, and the losers from Friday play for third place in a consolation game. This year’s invitees were Mercyhurst University, the University of Massachusetts, and Alabama-Huntsville University, and of course the hosting team, the University of Minnesota,

We were scheduled to play the University of Minnesota on Friday night, which was super exciting for me. As I stated in an earlier blog post, it is always exhilarating to play Big Ten teams because I grew up watching them. Furthermore, the University of Minnesota is one of the most storied college hockey programs of all-time.

The Mariucci Arena was filled with Gopher fans on that Friday night. I was surprised it was packed because we are a less known and respected team, and are one of the farthest things from a rival. The arena is massive, I believe one of the largest in college hockey. It has stadium seating all the around the rink and is very similar to an NHL arena. The concourse is at the top of the stands so it is an enormous bowl that with very steep seating. I’m not a player who gets nervous or anxious before games, but if I had to choose a game that I felt the most anxious for, it would have been this one. It was much more invigorating, however, than nerve-wracking.

It was a surreal feeling standing on the blue-line at Mariucci Arena at the start of the game, while watching the thousands of Minnesota fans singing the National Anthem. Talk about a way to get the blood pumping. It was 2-1 Gophers after the first period during our game. We played them tough but they scored a late second period goal to make it 3-1, and then scored twice late in the third period to make it 5-1. Although the score reflects a lopsided game, I thought we played Minnesota tough for the majority of the night.

Because we lost on Friday night, we played Alabama-Huntsville, who lost to UMass, on Saturday afternoon. We were down 2-0 for the majority of the game until we scored two late third period goals to tie it 2-2. We then went into a five-minute overtime where we scored to win the game 3-2. Although the game didn’t mean much, I believe the comeback win was a pivotal moment in our season.

The rink itself played very much like a professional arena. If you have been following along with this blog, then you probably already know what that means. The boards were very lively and the glass was extremely forgiving. The ice surface was a little sticky because the arena is so massive, which makes it difficult to maintain the cold temperature. The ice surface is also an Olympic size sheet, which makes the dimensions 200" x 100". The walls at the top of the concourse are plastered with murals and pictures of the notable alumni who have worn the Minnesota sweater. The jumbo-tron located above center ice is one of the most unique and coolest ones that I’ve seen. 

It was an awesome experience playing the Gophers at Mariucci Ice Arena, and it is definitely the best atmosphere that I’ve ever played in. I would love for a chance at revenge and to play the Gophers again on their home ice.

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-       Joshua Lammon 

Source: http://www.gophersports.com/view.gal?id=200754