Home Sweet Home

Optimist Ice Arena

Location: Jackson, MI


The next, and final, arena that I will be analyzing in my blog is the Optimist Ice Arena, which used to be home to the Jackson Generals.

I learned to skate and play ice hockey at Optimist Arena. I began skating there when I was three years old and never looked back. The facility was my home arena until I was 10 years old, when I began playing hockey out of The Summit in Lansing. That didn't stop me from skating at Optimist, however, as I continued to skate there during the summer and at sticks and pucks.

I played house hockey in the arena until I was 7, and then I began playing travel hockey for the Jackson Generals at the age of 8. I played there for two seasons and was fortunate enough to be voted captain by my teammates. I had a great time with the Generals, but I had an opportunity to play with the Lansing Pride, which I took advantage of. Before leaving to play in Lansing, I would spend at least 4 nights a week at the Optimist Ice Arena. The hockey community in Jackson was like a family when I was younger. There were tons of house and travels teams that skated out of there. On the weekends, the rink would be packed from 7am until 11pm at night with game after game. It was an awesome environment and it definitely helped fuel my passion for the game.

There are two rinks in the arena. The "South Rink" is the older one. It underwent renovations when I was younger which brought it up to par with the "North Arena." The south arena has a press box located above the benches and has seating on one side of the arena. The lighting is much darker in this arena for some reason, but the ice is always excellent. The quality of the ice is the best feature of Optimist Ice Arena. The staff keeps the arenas cold; therefore, the ice stays hard and doesn't get chopped up as fast. One cool feature of the South Rink is that it has a Zamboni door that rises straight up electrically. Most arenas have doors that must be opened by the rink staff manually, but this allows them to push a button like a garage door.

The "North Rink" is newer and has more seating available for fans. The locker rooms are not overly spacious but they get the job done. There are four locker rooms for each rink and there are private locker rooms for the local high school hockey teams of Jackson High and Lumen Christi. I'm not certain of the maximum seating capacity of the arena but there is definitely a significant amount of seating. I'm a firm believer that Optimist Ice Arena would be a good venue for a junior hockey team, particularly a NAHL or NAHL3 team. There is a strong hockey community in Jackson, and I believe that there would be enough support to fund the team, but that's besides the point.

I fell in love with the game at Optimist Ice Arena in Jackson and even though I left at a young age to
play elsewhere, I owe it to that building for shaping me into the player that I am today. I still occasionally skate there in the summer time, and it always brings me joy to see little kids hopping on the ice with big smiles because it brings me back on my childhood. I hope that they find the same love for hockey, or whatever else in their lives, as I did for the game. I think it is fitting that I end my blog on the arena that started it all for me. I want to thank all of my teammates, coaches, and arena staff members for helping me along the way; I would not have done it without you.

And this brings me to the conclusion of my blog, Within the Glass. I hope that you have enjoyed my reflections on the venues that I have played in during my hockey career. I have had tremendous joy in sharing these posts with you guys, and if any of you are considering writing a blog, I would highly recommend doing so. Write about anything, whether is very personal and intimate, or just something you're passionate or curious about. I think it is an important and helpful habit to get in to.

For the last time, I want to thank you for following my blog throughout this semester. Although I will not longer be adding posts to this blog, I am still writing blog posts for a website called Wiser Fans. You can check out this link and you will be able to see my posts about the NHL. Thanks again!

- Joshua Lammon

The Nelly

Nelson Center

Springfield, IL
Opened:1993
Seating Capacity: 2100

The next arena I will be covering in my blog is the Nelson Center, which is home to the Springfield Junior Blues of the North American Hockey League.

I played for two seasons with the Jr. Blues in the NAHL. We skated out of the Nelson Center, which is a public skating arena that is surrounded by a water park, soccer fields, and Frisbee course. It was not the most jaw-dropping arena by any means, but it was my home for two years. It is completely different from all of the arenas that I have covered in my blog so far. It felt like a junior arena. It was not too small so that it felt like a youth hockey arena; yet, it was not enormous so it felt like playing in a professional venue. It was...just right.

As I mentioned earlier, there was a public water park adjacent to the arena, so our locker room served as a changing area in the summer time and as an ice hockey locker room in the fall and winter. While this may seem bizarre, the locker room was very spacious. The biggest downfall of that locker room was the warm water, or lack thereof. The showers would not get warm unless they ran for roughly 20 minutes. We had to use broken hockey sticks and turn them into a "shower stick" that would hold the shower nozzle on and keep the water running. Luckily, this job was delegated to the rookies so I didn't have to worry about it my second year.

The arena had seating on both sides of the ice. On one side, the seating was old wooden bleachers, and the other had new aluminum seating. Personally, I liked the look of the wooden side better. I would sit in the stands, isolated, for about a half an hour before every game and just stare onto the ice envisioning every scenario in my head. The arena had a concession stand across from the benches, but on the side of the rink where I dressing room was. As we would come onto the ice before the game and between intermissions, the fans would line up and give us high fives. It is a pretty proud feeling knowing that fans, who have no idea who we are, come and pay to watch us play the game we love. In a sense, it made me feel like a professional player having little kids idolize us.

The ice surface was always pretty good during the colder months; however, at the beginning of the season it would still be warm outside which made the ice very slushy. There was also a large conference room on the opposite side of the benches that had glass windows. If the sun was sitting just right, these windows would make for very bad glares on the ice. The size of the arena was nothing out of the ordinary. It felt like the perfect size. Not too big, not too small. The boards and glass were also nothing special. They were not dead like some of the arenas I have written about, but at the same time they were not nearly as lively as others.

Most teams hated coming to play us in the Nelson Center. Granted, the opposing teams' locker room is nothing to write home about. But I loved playing in that arena. It felt like home to me and I would not have been opposed to playing all 120 of my NAHL games in that arena. I'm glad that I had the privilege of calling the Nelson Center my home for two seasons, and I want to thank all of the Springfield Jr. Blues coaches, players, billet families, and fans for making my time in Springy a memorable one. I'm proud to say I served as your captain for a season, and I wish for all the best in the future.

Go Blues!

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

  

-       Joshua Lammon 

Roadrunners' Arena

Landon Arena

Location: Topeka, KS

Opened: 1987

Seating Capacity: 7,773

The next arena I will be covering in my blog is Landon Arena, which is home to the Topeka Roadrunners in the North American Hockey League.

The building sits in the heart of Topeka, Kansas and serves as a multi-purpose venue. The arena is home to hockey games, concerts, monster truck shows, and other entertainment. It is a large arena, especially for an arena hosting a NAHL team. It was similar to the Ohio State Arena that I wrote about earlier because the arena never filled up. There would be roughly 2000 people there but it appeared as if it was empty.

The arena, like many large arenas that I have covered in this blog, the ice surface felt extremely warm and sticky but the boards and glass were lively and forgiving. This arena had dim lightning because they would not use all of the lighting for hockey games. Don’t interpret this the wrong way; there would be sufficient lighting to play a hockey game, but there was no need to use all the lights in the building for a junior hockey game.

The arena had a concourse that divided the lower and upper bowls, similar to most professional arenas. They would sell Topeka Roadrunner jerseys, which is really cool for being a NAHL team. They were a large budget organization so they would have promotional games where they would give away t-shirts to the first 500 fans. Their fans were passionate and they were not afraid to let us know it. There was a group of men who sat behind the visiting team’s bench and they would call themselves the “Bucket Brigade.” These guys would bring a bucket and cowbells so that when our coach would try and talk to us during media timeouts, they would bang the drum and ring the bells so that we couldn’t hear him. Topeka was already a frustrating team to play against to begin with, and having this circus act behind our bench would make it even more difficult to play there. I’ll give it to them though. I don’t get distracted easily by things outside of the rink, but I’ll admit that these guys had real estate in my head.

Topeka’s arena is not one of my favorite arenas to play in, but it was a good venue for a NAHL team. Plus they had very emotional and obnoxious fans, which made it fun to play there.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

  

-       Joshua Lammon 

Source: https://scotthockey.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/arena.jpg

War Memorial

Cambria County War Memorial Arena
Location: Johnstown, PA
Opened: 1950
Seating Capacity: 4001

The next arena I will be covering in my blog is the Cambria County War Memorial Arena, which is home to the Johnstown Tomahawks of the North American Hockey League.

The Johnstown Tomahawks were one of my favorite teams to play against during my time in the NAHL. It would
always be a chippy and physical game when we would play them, which is my style of hockey. The Tomahawks had an exuberant fan base and they were always extremely fired up. They nearly filled the arena every time we played there. I feed off of the spirit of a highly-energized crowd. Although the arena seats over 4000 fans, it is not very
spacious so the fans are packed tightly to the ice rink.

The arena is styled after professional arenas and that it has a concourse that wraps around the rink. They have multiple concession stands that sell food, drinks, and Tomahawks' apparel. Our locker room was located on the opposite side of the concourse as the arena so the arena staff would have to rope off the fans as we would walk towards the ice.

The ice was the biggest downfall of this arena. For whatever reason, the ice was very sticky which slowed the game down immensely. Because the arena itself was so small, it made the ice surface feel narrow which countered the slow ice. The boards were lively which also helped against the slow ice surface. The boards sat really high which made it difficult to jump over them and onto the ice. Even through the door, there was still a foot drop onto the ice.

I was not a fan of the travel that our team had to endure to get to Johnstown, PA. We had an 11-hour bus ride through the middle of nothing but corn fields, forests, and mountains. That was the nightmare of junior hockey; the long road trips. I dreaded going on these grueling trips but Johnstown's arena made the trek worth while.

One interesting fact about the arena is that it is the same arena that they filmed the movie Slap Shot in. Whether you are a hockey fan or not, I would recommend watching it. The Hanson Brothers will have you on laughing throughout the whole film. I actually met one of the Hanson brothers on my first visit to
Johnstown which was awesome.

In 2015, the arena also won the Kraft Hockeyville USA contest, which was a $150,000 award to undergo renovations for the rink. It also hosted an NHL preseason game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning, which as a cool event for a junior hockey arena.

Overall, Johntown's arena is actually much better than some of the NCAA arenas that I covered in earlier posts. It's old age and long history provide it with so tons of character. I would love to play in that arena again because I enjoyed the many times that previously played there.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

-  Joshua Lammon

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.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

  

-       Joshua Lammon 

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

The Jar

John A. Ryan Arena

Source: http://tinyurl.com/ksk5wu8

Location: Watertown, MA
Opened:1972
Seating Capacity: 1250

The next arena that I will be examining in my blog is the John A. Ryan Arena, which is home to the Bentley Falcons.

I'm going to be extremely blunt when describing the JAR, it's terrible. It is definitely one of the worst arena's that I have played in many years. I have not played at all the arenas in the NCAA, but I feel safe saying that the JAR is the worst arena in the league. It is a local rink that is located roughly 3 miles away from Bentley's campus.

The rink is small, especially compared to others in the NCAA, and it is in poor condition; the arena shows its old age. It has a very damp environment that makes the arena smell funky. The lighting is poor and it makes it difficult to see on the ice. The boards are lifeless and the puck does not react well when bounced off of it. They are relatively stiff too, which makes it painful when getting checked into the boards.

The ice was similar to the Mercyhurst Ice Center ice, which means it was below average. It quickly gets chewed up quickly and makes it difficult to settle the puck down. The arena feels very small and the neutral zones seem non-existent. Because the arena is so small, the pace of play seems super fast compared to other arenas. The ice surface also has a red line going along the entire boards around the arena. This is designed to help young hockey players avoid checking each other from behind and reduce injuries. This feature, however, should not be present on an NCAA ice arena. Not only is it visually unpleasant, but collegiate hockey players do not need to be reminded not to check one another from behind into the boards.

The Falcons do not receive a lot of support from their fans either. This is likely because the arena is located off campus, and because they do not want to sit in this arena for that long. This issue will soon be fixed, however, as Bentley is building a new ice arena on campus for their team. The school is building a multi-purpose venue that will have 2000 fixed seats and have the option to accommodate up to 3400 people for concerts or other purposes. The arena is supposed to open in early 2018, so hopefully I will have the chance to play in the newly designed arena.

I just want to clarify that my opinion in this blog is not reflective of what I think of Bentley University or Bentley's Division 1 Ice Hockey Team. I am simply providing you with the experience that I had during my time at the John A. Ryan Arena. The Bentley Falcons are a tremendously respected hockey program and I am not criticizing the program.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

- Joshua Lammon

The "M" Den

Yost Ice Arena

Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Opened: 1923
Seating Capacity: 5800

The next ice arena I will be reflecting on in my blog is Yost Ice Arena, which is home to the University of Michigan Wolverines ice hockey team.

I was fortunate enough to play two Division 1 hockey games against the University of Michigan during my freshman year at Mercyhurst. It was a dream come true for me to play a college hockey game at Yost arena because I grew up watching the Wolverines play. I've been to Yost countless times. I've helped host a youth 3 on 3 tournament there and I actually got to participate in a shootout during the intermission of a Michigan hockey game. I remember scoring a goal in the shootout and the crowd went wild; that is when I knew I wanted to play college hockey. It was won of the coolest feelings in the world scoring that shootout goal as a little kid.

We played the University of Michigan in October, which is relatively early in the season. My coaches were kind enough to put me in the starting lineup on Friday night, which is an honor being a starting freshman. It was a surreal feeling standing on the goal-line and hearing "At center, a freshman from Jackson, MI, number 27, Joshua Lammon." The skate to blue-line and hearing my friends and family cheer was an unforgettable feeling that I will surely never forget. I remember watching the starting lineups get announced as a child and dreaming about hearing my name be called.

Yost was packed both games that we played that weekend, which was surprising because we are just a small university that doesn't play U of M too often. It was definitely the biggest crowd that I had played in front of at the time. I would estimate that there were at least 4000-4500 people in attendance. I was not nervous playing in front of that many fans; however, I felt more excited and adrenalized than ever.

Yost is a vintage barn and is approaching its 100-year anniversary in 2023. It is an old brick building that provides a ton of character. The seating, music and lighting systems were all renovated in 2012 to modernize the arena. Maize and blue murals and artwork is plastered along the walls of the building. It is also humbling to see pictures of the famous alumni who played for the prestigious program. Playing against Red Berenson was an awesome experience. He has been the head coach for Michigan for 32 years; well longer than I have been alive.

To top off the weekend, I was able to score a goal against the University of Michigan in front of a full house. That was a dreamlike experience. My buddy, Lester Lancaster, who I have played with for the past five seasons, and I had a two on one line rush and I passed him the puck at the top of the circles and he drove the net. I was able to bury the rebound by basically pushing the goalie into the net. It wasn't pretty, but hey, they don't ask how, they just ask how many. He is from Michigan as well so it was an awesome feeling to be able to connect for a goal together.

Obviously, if you couldn't tell, playing against the University of Michigan at Yost Ice Arena has been the most memorable experience of my college career. It had an unbelievable time playing against one of the most recognized school's in the country for college hockey. Without a doubt, I would love to play against Michigan again.

Go blue...and green for the Lakers of course.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

- Joshua

Wildcat Den

Whittemore Center

Location: Durham, New Hampshire
Opened: 1995
Seating Capacity: 6501

The next arena I will be reflecting on in my blog is the Whittemore Center, which is home to the University of New Hampshire Wildcats.

We played the Wildcats on a Saturday night following a game against the Merrimack Warriors on Friday. Both Merrimack and the University of New Hampshire play in the Hockey East NCAA conference. As I have mentioned in many of my other blogs, it is always exciting playing in venues that are outside of the Atlantic Hockey conference.

The Whittemore Center is an enormous arena. The venue can seat over 6500 screaming fans. The building hosts New Hampshire's men's and women's hockey and basketball games along with various concerts and shows. When we played the Wildcats, I would estimate that there were roughly 1500 fans in the building which was pretty impressive since we do not play in the same conference as them. The student section was rowdy which always makes the environment fun to play in. The student section printed out "player biographies" on a handful of our team's players with fun facts that were fake and comical.

The ice surface is a massive; it has international hockey dimensions which means it is 15 feet wider than NHL ice rinks. While 15 feet may seem insignificant, it has a tremendous impact on the way the game is played. Large ice surfaces benefits benefit teams with smaller and faster players which was evident in New Hampshire's lineup. They were probably the smallest college hockey team that I have played against. There were many players who were well-under 6'0" tall, which is uncommon in college hockey.

The boards and glass were similar to Ohio State's in which the glass is extremely forgiving and the boards are lively which facilitates the fast pace of play. It became very tiresome chasing their smaller players around the humongous ice service. The corners in international rinks are much deeper and it allows for more plays to develop in the offensive zones. I play center and it is more difficult playing in the defensive zone on such a big ice surface.

The arena is located on New Hampshire's campus. Although we did not spend much time on the campus, it appeared to be a very lively and engaging campus with many students walking around. The Wildcats also had great support from their student body as I hinted at earlier. They were lively in the student section and there was chaos in the arena when New Hampshire scored.

I definitely enjoyed playing at the Whittemore Center in New Hampshire. I loved the atmosphere from the crowd and the arena itself is a beautiful venue; however, I was not a huge fan of the long bus ride to and from New Hampshire though.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

- Joshua

Buckeye State

Value City Arena

Photo Credit: Ric Kruszynski

Location: Columbus, Ohio
Opened: 1998
Seating Capacity: 17500

The next arena I will be viewing is the Value City Arena, which is home to the Ohio State Buckeyes men's ice hockey team and men's and women's basketball teams.

We played the Buckeyes at Value City Arena during my freshman year of college. It was the second Big Ten team I played against, as we played Michigan earlier during that year. It's always exciting for me to play Big Ten teams because I grew up watching them play in the CCHA league growing up. Ohio State had always been a rival to the Michigan Wolverines, who was a team I grew up idolizing.

As I mentioned earlier, the arena also serves as a basketball court for Ohio State, so there is a ton of seating. By ton, I mean 17,500 seats. I think it goes without saying that many of these seats were empty during our game. I believe the attendance sheet said roughly 2000 fans attended the game. In most arenas, this would be a good turnout, but not for an arena that holds nearly nine times that amount. We did, however, play the Buckeyes on their fall break so there were not a lot of students on campus which hurt the attendance.

Like the Webster Bank Arena in Connecticut, the ice surface seems much larger in the Value City Arena compared to many smaller venues. Again, the rink measurements meet NHL regulations, it is simply your mind playing tricks on you. The ice was in great condition as the Big Ten schools have a lot of funding to maintain the ice surface. The boards and glass were also the professional style. The are generally more forgiving and the puck reacts super fast off of them. Value City Arena also has a large jumbo-tron hanging over its center ice. Most of the arenas in college hockey have some sort of digital screen, and like I have said throughout my blog, I believe it is a welcoming feature by the fans and players.

It was an awesome experience to play the Ohio State Buckeyes in their own arena. But what was even better, is that we beat them in it. We won 2-1 on Friday night to stun the Buckeyes. Taking down a Big Ten team was a big moral booster for our us. Although we split the weekend with them, I believe it gave us a spark for the rest of the season and we proved to ourselves that we can compete with any team in the nation.

I really enjoyed playing at Ohio State and I would not be opposed to play there again during my next  two years of college hockey. Hopefully there would be a more impressive attendance next time and that we can come away with two wins instead of one.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

- Joshua Lammon

Photo Credit: Ric Kruszynski

Photo Credit: Ric Kruszynski

Photo Credit: Ric Kruszynski

Sacred Soil

Webster Bank Arena

Location: Bridgeport, Connecticut
Opened: 2001
Seating Capacity: 8525

The next arena I will be examining in this blog is the Webster Bank Arena, which is the new home to the Sacred Heart Pioneers.

The Sacred Heart ice hockey team moved to the Webster Bank Arena for the 2016-17 campaign, and from what I've heard through the grapevine, is a very good thing. I never had the opportunity to play in the Pioneers' old barn, but I have heard that it was not a pleasant place to place. Webster Bank Arena also serves as home to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League. We actually we able to watch the Sound Tigers practice before our morning skate that weekend which was pretty cool.

The arena, being home to a professional team, obviously seats many fans. Let's just say that I hope the Sound Tigers receive better support than the Pioneers because there were not many fans at the game. Despite the lack of energy in the stands, however, the venue was still an awesome place to play in.

The arena has an advanced lighting system and when the Pioneers score, the lights go dim and this is a light display. Although you don't wish to see it being the road team, its a pretty neat celebration to watch. There is also an enormous jumbo-tron display hanging over center ice which really adds a lot of character to the building. It is much bigger than most jumbo-tron screens, and its always cool to be able to watch the game on the screen while catching your breath after a long shift.

The ice surface, if I recall correctly, was very sticky and slow. This oftentimes happens with big arenas because its much harder to keep the ice and building cool. The boards were very lively, as are most professional arenas. I would say that is one of the primary differences between professional arenas and others; the glass and boards are made with higher quality and it allows the players to make better plays off of them. The ice rink always appears to be much larger in arenas with stadium seating as opposed to bleachers. I believe it is simply an illusion because the building is typically much bigger as well.

We won our game against the Sacred Heart Pioneers 5-3 at Bridgeport Arena. I was able to put a puck in the back of the net that game as well. It was definitely a big relief to get the monkey off of my back as I had not scored in quite a few games prior to that goal. I am 1-0 in the Webster Bank Arena and I hope to preserve my perfect record during my last two years of college hockey.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

- Joshua Lammon

Warriors, Come Out and Play

Lawler Arena

Source: http://tinyurl.com/mrsfcof

North Andover, Massachusetts
Opened: 1972
Seating Capacity: 2549

The next arena I will be examining in my blog is Lawler Arena, which is home to the Merrimack Warriors ice hockey team.

Merrimack is one team that is does not participate in the Atlantic Hockey League. Instead, they play in the Hockey East Conference with schools such as Boston College, Boston University, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The arena is a cool college arena that is part of a multipurpose sports complex located on Merrimack's campus. There is a basketball arena located across a hallway from Lawler Arena.

Like that of Holy Cross' arena, Lawler Arena has painted stanchions. These stanchions are yellow instead of purple.
The arena has individual seating on three sides of arena. The seating is blue to match the Warriors' uniforms and rises to roughly ten rows. I believe the arena underwent renovations in 2010 which added the seat-back seating and the student section seating behind the goal-line. These renovations were said to have caused a rise in attendance.

Merrimack's arena also has an awesome digital screen that is located on the end of the rink without seating. It is made from a bunch of individual smaller screens that are in sync to create one larger display. It is a very cool technology and it gives the fans varying perspectives on the game.

I have only played one game at Lawler arena, but from what I can remember, the ice surface is rather quick and hard. Like I've said many times before, this creates a favorable environment to play on. The boards seemed to be rather lively which also facilitates a faster game speed.

We played the Warriors on a Friday night and there was a pretty good turnout in attendance. I really enjoy having the student section seated behind the goal-line as it seems to increase the volume of their voice. I definitely think it was an enjoyable atmosphere that I would definitely want to play in again.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

- Joshua

Purple Eagle Nest

Dwyer Arena
Location: Lewiston, New York
Opened: 1996
Seating Capacity: 1400

Source: http://tinyurl.com/jmqvh9j

The next arena under the microscope of this blog is Dwyer Arena, which is home to the Niagara University Purple Eagles.


Just like the last arena I covered, the Hart Center at Holy Cross University, Dwyer Arena is also plastered in purple. It contains less purple than the Hart Center in the arena itself but the lobby has a lot of the color painted on it. The arena has a very tall, pitched ceiling, which is extremely helpful to players when trying to clear the puck out of the defensive zone. They could be made to be more appealing to the eye. There is an ugly chrome-looking insulation that makes up the majority of the ceiling. Personally, I'd cover that up with paneling.

The arena has bleachers on two sides of the arena, similarly to the Mercyhurst Ice Center. The majority of them are located across from the benches and are made from aluminum bleachers. They have a cool VIP seating section located behind their home team's goalie. There are also suite windows located above the VIP seating that spectators can watch the game through. The arena's lighting is its biggest fault. Because the lighting system sits so high in the rafters, coupled with the dark purple theme, it creates a dim lighting on the playing surface.

The ice surface itself appears much larger than other arenas, but is the regulation size of 200' by 85'. The ice is pretty firm which allows for a good game speed and the puck to be easily settled. Mercyhurst has been pretty successful in this arena since I've arrived as we have only lost once in the arena in my two years here.

The last time our team played there, Niagara's promo team decided to have "bubble races" around the ice surface during media timeouts. In case you are not sure, we have 2 minute media timeouts at the first whistle after the 5, 10, and 15 minute mark of each period. They would have contestants suit up in the large air bubbles and race a complete lap around the rink. These 2 minute timeouts turned into 5 minute circus distractions that lead to nothing but impatience and sleepy legs. If you're reading this, Niagara Hockey's marketing team, please put the races during intermissions, not media timeouts next year.

The arena is located a few minutes off of the highway, directly on Niagara's campus. It is usually dark when we arrive at the arena so I have never really examined much of the campus itself. Despite being located on the campus, the Purple Eagles don't receive much support from their fellow students. There has never been an impressive crowd at our game in Dwyer Arena.

The arena did co-host the 2011 IIHF World Junior Championships which is pretty awesome. It was also home to the Buffalo Sabres Summer Development Camp from 2008-11. It is a good sized arena that has a lot of potential to be a unique college barn. It just needs some tender loving care and a bigger fan base to become a memorable place to play.

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- Joshua

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The Crusaders' Home

Hart Center

Location: Worcester, Massachusetts
Opened: 1975
Seating Capacity: 1600

The next arena that I will be analyzing is the Hart Center, which is home to the Holy Cross Crusaders.

Similarly to BGSU's campus, which I wrote about in an earlier blog, Holy Cross' campus is covered in their school's colors. But instead of a large pumpkin patch, it looks like Barney's university; the campus is covered in purple. The Barney reference isn't a knock on the campus however, because the Holy Cross campus is gorgeous. It sits on a ridge overlooking the city of Worcester, MA.

The Hart Center, which is just one segment of a large athletic facility, received renovations in 2016. Money was donated to the school to renovate the Luth Athletic Complex, which houses the Hart Center. The money set aside for the ice arena was used to renovate the men's and women's locker rooms and coaching offices. Unfortunately, we don't get the benefits from these new additions.

The ice arena only has seating on one side of the rink which are located directly behind the players' benches. The walls surrounding the ice surface are very close to the glass on the other three sides and it creates a vicious echoing effect. Pucks that deflect off of the boards and glass are extremely loud in this arena.

The glass in the arena is very firm, like that at Tate Rink at Army West Point, but the stanchions that hold the glass in place are painted purple. It provides the arena with a unique look, because the majority of arenas have clear or silver stanchions. The scoreboard, located over the zamboni door, is colored purple. There are also championship banners hanging across from the benches that are purple as well.

The ice surface is very quick and the arena has a very tight feeling to it. Plays seem to develop rather quickly on the ice surface and there isn't a lot of room to maneuver. The arena feels fast because the ice arena is cold and the ice freezes rapidly. Many players prefer this style of ice because it creates a more skilled and fast game speed.

Holy Cross doesn't receive a ton of support from its students in terms of hockey. I have played four games in my career at the Hart Center and none of the crowds were overly impressive. The best attendance would have been at their senior night last season. The Hart Center was pretty full on that night, but a full crowd at the Hart Center is not a difficult feat because of its small seating capacity.

I would describe the Hart Center best as a mediocre arena. It is not an arena I dread going to, aside from the eight hour long bus ride, but it is also one that I would not write home about either (maybe just in a blog). It is very simplistic and is similar to a few arenas in Atlantic Hockey.

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In hoc signo vinces.

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The Otter Den

Photo Credit: Ric Kruszynski

Erie Insurance Arena
Location: Erie, Pennsylvania
Opened: 1983
Seating Capacity: 6,833

The next arena I will be examining is the Erie Insurance Arena, which is home to the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League and the Erie BayHawks of the NBA Development League.

The Erie Insurance Arena is not home to any Atlantic Hockey team, or any college hockey team for that matter. It is located in downtown Erie and serves as home to the Erie Otters and Erie BayHawks. The venue is also used for concerts; I have seen Breaking Benjamin, Jason Aldean, and Thomas Rhett play in the arena. You may then be wondering why I am writing about this arena. It's because we opened up our season this year playing Penn State University at the Erie Insurance Arena.

The arena, due to its nature, is much larger than most arenas I have played at while playing collegiate hockey. It has a strange maroon theme that is painted on the walls of the suites and the seats. It makes the arena very dark as the ceiling rafters are painted a gun metal grey too. The seats wrap around 3/4 of the ice rink with suite windows placed above the fourth end. There is also an enormous jumbo-tron located above center ice.

Like many big arenas, the ice appears to be much larger than a regular sheet of ice. Of course, it is still the regulation size. The ice surface, if I recall correctly, seemed to be very sticky and slow because of the warm weather that Erie had in early October. It is extremely difficult to maintain a good ice surface in hot and humid weather, especially in an arena this large.

We hosted Penn State University in the second Snowtown Throwdown to open up our 2016-17 campaign. This was the first meeting between Mercyhurst and Penn State. It was a substantial marketing event because it was a battle between Pennsylvania schools. Unfortunately, the marketing attracted more blue and white Penn State fans than it did Laker Lunatics, despite the Lakers supposedly having the home-ice advantage.

It was a fun environment to play in "irregardless" (my teammates will understand) of the Penn State crowd. It is always cool playing Big Ten teams because they get more recognition and publicity than the schools in our conference. The game, however, did not end in our favor. We were badly defeated by Penn State, but to our credit, they were ranked as the #2 team in college hockey earlier this season. With that being said, myself, nor my team, uses that as an excuse to beating we received. As our coach always says, "There are no moral victories in hockey." I believe that we are expected to host a tournament at Erie Insurance my senior year, so I will get one more chance at victory in the facility.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

- Joshua Lammon

Photo Credit: Ric Kruszynski

Photo Credit: Ric Kruszynski

Photo Credit: Ric Kruszynski

Photo Credit: Ric Kruszynski

Photo Credit: Ric Kruszynski