Look What Sprouted in Our Garden!

Madeleine and Orange Cat "helped" me work on the lawn this weekend

Road Warriors

As my dad and I (and a sleeping Ethan nestled into my arms) shuffled disappointedly out of the Verizon Wireless Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, late last month, following the Merrimack hockey team’s still-incomprehensible overtime loss to Notre Dame, it wasn’t lost on me that even being at the Verizon Wireless Center for an NCAA Division 1 regional playoff game was a monumental step forward for my beloved Merrimack Warriors.

GO MERRIMACK!

Nope, it wasn’t lost on me—but it still sucked.

I loved this year’s Merrimack team like I’ve loved no other sports team since the 2003 Red Sox. Once the laughing stock of the college hockey world, this year Merrimack finished 25-10-6 (16-8-3 in the conference) and not only cracked the top 20 in the USA Today national rankings, but actually reached as high as # 4 in the nation.

They beat every team in the conference at least once, won the regular season series against three of the “Big Four” (BC, BU, and UNH), clinched home ice in the conference playoffs—sweeping the final “Big Four” team, Maine, in a best-of-three—and played most home games in front of a sold out crowd at the newly renovated Lawler Arena.

It was a season for the ages that ended in heartbreaking fashion … twice.

First, they battled back against the hated Boston College Eagles in the Hockey East title game to tie the score at 3-3 late in the third period, only to give up the game winner less than a minute later. Then they followed that a week later with a late collapse against Notre Dame that ended with an overtime goal that didn’t even appear to follow the basic laws of physics.

But when all is said and done, I hope that’s not what I remember most about the 2010-11 Merrimack Warriors.

I hope I’ll remember that this squad set school records for wins, home attendance, and playoff performance. And that it was, without question, the greatest Merrimack team ever. And that, most importantly of all, it was with this team that I introduced Ethan to father-son and grandfather-father-son bonding via hockey. (Penny came to a couple of playoff games with me, too, which I loved—even though I think she was there more for the people watching than the hockey…)

Anyway, I took Ethan to games against BC, Maine, and the under-20 Swedish national team (all wins) during the regular season, and he loved every minute of it. So did I. It felt so cool to be able to share this with him, and to see him get excited every time I mentioned going to a game.

My dad joined me for a game late in the year against Umass (another win) and then again for a postseason game in the Hockey East tournament at the Boston Garden (yet another win). And of course the three of us—me, my dad, and Ethan—witnessed the loss to Notre Dame in the NCAA regionals.

At the pre-game rally before the loss to Notre Dame

It was a tough ending, but it doesn’t spoil the memory of a wide-eyed Ethan, bedecked in Merrimack garb and proudly carrying his “Go Merrimack!” sign, walking into the Verizon Wireless Center with us and saying “wow!” at the sheer size of it. Or of him telling me that it was “the best game ever!” the next morning. (In his defense, Merrimack was up 3-2 when he crawled into my lap to fall asleep early in the third period.)

Yep, it was a great experience and a great leap forward for the program as a whole, too.

To understand just how significant a season this was for Merrimack hockey, though, you first need to understand the depths to which the program had sunk. Here commences your history lesson:

For years, Merrimack was the doormat of Hockey East. And I don’t mean that they were bad—I mean they were absolutely terrible. 

The smallest school in all of division one college hockey, Merrimack had always struggled to compete with Hockey East’s “Big Four.” But over the past decade or so, they set a new standard for misery.

As recently as 2004-2005, Merrimack finished with a staggering  1-22-1 league record. In 2006-2007, they scored a grand total of 37 goals for the entire season. From 2004-2009, they couldn’t even qualify for the playoffs as one of the top eight teams in their 10-team conference. The rink was a dump, the student body didn’t care, and the program was in critical condition. There was talk that “Merri-mat” (as in, “doormat”) didn’t belong in Hockey East, let alone in division one.

Then, remarkably—miraculously!—things started to get better. New school president. New athletic director. New head coach. Dramatic improvements to the rink. By 2008, the team was comprised almost entirely of freshmen and sophomores (22 of the 28 roster spots) who were bringing a new attitude and a much-needed infusion of talent to the program.

Last year, Merrimack won 16 games, qualified for the conference playoffs, and pushed Boston Univerity to a third and deciding game before falling just short of the semifinals at the Boston Garden. There was a sense that the program was on the cusp of something big.

I don’t think anyone knew just how big that something would be, though. I certainly didn’t. I also didn’t have any sense of how much a bonding experience it would become for me, my dad, and my son.

Maybe that’s why I really can’t wait till they drop the puck again in October.