Last weekend’s split with Xavier, which included an incredible come-from-miles-behind win on Saturday against a fast and talented Musketeers club, sparked a brushfire of sorts across the series of tubes and internets that make up the Twitter. This is the blog post about the blog post about the fans’ tweets about the fans’ chirping that sparked said five-alarm-er.

First, a Look Back at Friday Night

We stunk. 9-4 loss. Moving on …

Onto Saturday, Armed With Fans

Looking to forget the horror of a miserable Halloween weekend Friday night, the ‘Dores fired into Saturday’s warm-ups with a hopeful outlook on the ice and a crew of energized supporters in the stands. All signs pointed to a rebound game for the Commodores.

A las, dear friends and sports aficionados, it was not meant to be … at least not in the first period.

“We had bricks in our skates, again,” said sophomore defenseman Greg Kirk. “A few odd man rushes, a few snipes on their side, and boom – we were down 4-0 before we knew what hit us. It was embarrassing.”

It was at that point that two things happened to change the trajectory of the game, the weekend, and perhaps even the season. Junior center Brad Pesce stood and delivered, first in the locker room with an impassioned declaration to his teammates that, “We will win this game boys,” then again on the ice with 4 goals, 7 dangles, and 4.5 celes.

And the second spark? The emergence of Vanderbilt hockey’s “7th man,” 25 fans that have earned the collective nickname “Penalty Box Radio” on account of their Preds super-fan status and actual radio show on ESPN’s Nashville affiliate 102.5 FM. You could call them refugees from an NHL season lost, wayward hockey souls looking to feed their hockey fix with any possible ice-related competitive endeavor. While everyone would love to have pro hockey back in action, for at least the time being (and especially in those second and third periods) the Vanderbilt players and coaches alike were extremely thankful for the present situation.

“We went down 4-to-nothing real quick and things were not looking good, just a continuation of Friday,” recalled sophomore Harry “The Flow” Londoff. “But then we rode a serious wave of enthusiasm from our new friends in the stands and popped in 6 genos in the second. It was incredible!”

The final score was 9-7 Vanderbilt, a reversal of fortunes from the night before, and you would have thought that the comeback alone would have been the conclusion to the weekend’s excitement. But like all great dramas it needed an encore to the performance, and boy did the PBR team deliver that extra act with some spirited banter on Twitter focused on an incident that took place in the game that, surprisingly, no one on the Vanderbilt club even noticed.

Apparently, the PBR team’s chirping, which you might consider edgy yet par for the sport by most hockey standards, drove one of the Xavier players so crazy that he launched a few choice expletives, plus a ball of tape(!), at the fans in the stands. Said @BigBenPreds on Twitter following the game, “Anytime, the opposing team comes over and Mouths “#&#$ You” and throws stuff at you. Your doing chirping right, great win.”

If that wasn’t enough crowd engagement for you on the evening, the incident then lead to a wide-reaching retrospective article on fan cheering (and taunting) in general by “The Predatorial,” arguably the most visited Preds hockey blog on the internet.

Titled “What Sports Level Should You Start Taunting?,” Kristopher Martel dove deep with a series of questions that went far beyond the confines of the Centennial Sportsplex, Vanderbilt University, and Nashville, TN, asking, “Is it right to taunt players? Probably not. Yet, it happens, and it happens in most collegiate and professional sports. However, what about sports where the individuals have to pay to play it (or complete fundraisers to raise the money)? Or where they are of an age where it’s essentially an adult taunting someone under the age of 18? Is it right then?”

Now, is it right to taunt players? Probably not. Yet, it happens, and it happens in most collegiate and professional sports. However, what about sports where the individuals have to pay to play it (or complete fundraisers to raise the money)? Or where they are of an age where it’s essentially an adult taunting someone under the age of 18? Is it right then?

Keep in mind, the ‘Dores started the evening expecting a standard hockey crowd of Coach Bernstein’s lovely wife Betsy plus a smattering of Xavier parents, a challenging and largely clean game – hopefully a win for Vanderbilt, and finally a quiet coast into the remainder of the weekend sans post-game drama and debate. What they got was the exact opposite … and man is that awesome.

PBR Back In The House

The Commodores will be back in action this evening versus a tough Georgia Tech club, and so will the Penalty Box Radio faithful along with several hundred brothers from the esteemed Sigma Chi house at Vanderbilt. Game time is 10:15pm at Centennial and tickets are free so definitely come down and check out some great hockey action.

Can’t make it tonight? That’s OK because the ‘Dores play another game on Sunday versus SECHC rival the University of Georgia Ice Dawgs at 6pm CT at A-Game Sportplex in Franklin, TN.

We can’t thank our fans and supporters enough and look forward to a great weekend. Take care and looking forward to seeing you at the rink!

NASHVILLE, TN – In what should have been a weekend marked entirely by revelry and triumph on account of seventeen former Vanderbilt hockey greats returning to campus for the first ever VU Hockey Alumni Weekend, things soured considerably when the University of Alabama Frozen Tide unceremoniously dispatched the Vanderbilt Chille’dores 4-3 at the Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville. Outshot, outskated, and out-conditioned by a large margin, Vanderbilt just didn’t bring it against its rival to the south. The score did not reflect the lop-sided play in the game, nor did it capture the disappointment held by the Vanderbilt club’s alums following the contest.

“Call me crazy but I just thought the boys were going to win one for us old guys,” said a mildly despondent and reflective Jotham McCauley (’01). “You can’t win ‘em all. Of course, in our day we did, but that’s ancient history at this point.” Our staff writers found this claim of former glory to be a bit suspect, however a fire in the athletic department archives in the summer of 2002 destroyed all records of the team’s history from 1991 through the 2001/02 season. We are therefore left to take former club president Justin Seibert’s (’99) word for it when he says that the Vanderbilt hockey club “used to dominate everybody back in the day. Everybody.”

The loss leaves the current club sitting with a record of 2-3 heading into a weekend set versus Xavier on Friday and Saturday, 9/26 and 9/27.

Practice Makes [for a] Perfect [Reunion]

The weekend kicked off with a practice at Centennial and the start of a reunion of alumni representing all eras of the club. Nashville native and resident Wade Cowan (’78) joined as the weekend’s most distinguished participant while reunion chair Brenden Oliver (‘12) clocked in as the youngest. There were guys from as far away as Idaho and Germany, West Virginia and Texas, New York City and Brentwood. From the start, the stories were flowing as freely as the libations.

“It was amazing to hear the tales from the old days,” said current assistant coach Jonathan Holston. “You could tell that some of their best friendships in life, even to this day, are the ones they made through the team. It’s fun to see and it’s even cooler to think about the fact that our guys are hopefully forging those same types of connections today.”

The practice was a big success as the guys were able to shake off some rust, in some cases literally. Several of the alums mentioned they hadn’t dusted their equipment off in years, perhaps since their last Vandy game some ten years ago.

“Let’s just say I didn’t arrive in mid-season form,” said former team enforcer and current Houston native Nolan McDougal (’01) who spent a portion of practice huddled over a garbage can, no doubt fighting off a case of food poisoning. Fortunately, he was able to exorcise the demons en route to a strong performance in Saturday’s alumni tilt versus the undergrads.

The prize for biggest, or should we say loudest, arrival was awarded to Stu Wick (’00), a PhD graduate who starred for the Commodores for seven years from 1993-2000. Cheers of “Stuuuuuuuuuuuu!” erupted upon his return and they only continued when he stepped onto the ice. Stu also took home the weekend’s style award for sporting a Messier-Oilers-era Cooper helmet and some solid vintage VU hockey gear.

“It felt like the old days,” said Wick. “People cheering my name, me racking up a few goals and throwing a few elbows. It was like returning home.”

The Big Stage

Thanks to the help and support of our friends at the Nashville Predators, the club was able to host the Alumni Game at Bridgestone Arena as part of a lockout-be-damned hockey doubleheader. (The Knoxville Bears took the ice against the Huntsville Havoc shortly after the Vanderbilt skate.)

“The Preds staff marketed the night over social media and in the local papers so we actually had a bunch of fans in the stands to watch our game,” said junior Alan Leeser. “It made for a fun event for everybody.”

The boys kicked things off at center ice with a stick tap/raise to former head coach Ken Murphy, the club’s first coach and financier, who watched with his family from the stands. The moment was an appropriate nod to the history of the team and a particularly special moment for Wade Cowan.

“Murph’s the best,” said Cowan. “It was great to see him back in the rink cheering us on after all these years!”

The game itself was competitive and then some as the undergrads and alumni traded goals, elbows, and chirps throughout a hotly contested 60 minutes. Former club president Mike Viscardi (’98) led the highlight reel with two nearly identical breakaway, glove-side, bar-down snipes on junior goalie Mike Gangemi.

Viscardi beamed afterwards saying, “It’s nice to know there’s still a little life in these hands. It reminds me of the old days when I used to light Seibert up in practice.”

Ultimately, the undergrads would prevail 6-5 on a late goal from assistant coach Lee Kanouff with 0:20 on the clock, but that did not take away from what was by all accounts a phenomenal day and weekend for the alumni squad. For a first ever event, the current club could not have asked for a better experience in terms of attendance and support from the 17 skaters that returned to Nashville. On behalf of everyone associated with the team, our thanks go out to Wade, Roland, Stu, Pepi, Mike, Justin, Christian, Patrick, Jotham, Nolan, Mike, Chris, Nathan, Ben, Matt, Jack, and Brenden. We’re already looking forward to the next one!

And Then The Tide Ruined Everything

Riddle me this, sports fans. What are the key ingredients for a flat game? Well, how about you start with the opponent, in Sunday’s case the New York Yankees of southern club hockey the University of Alabama Frozen Tide. Sprinkle in a 10:30am game slot the morning after an “Ibiza”-theme party, and how about we also fold in a few late season player debuts, just for good measure. There’s your recipe, guaranteed to deliver the way a Hot Pocket does – reliably, but only to a certain level of quality and nourishment.

That said, despite the circumstances the Commodores skated to an early 2-1 lead at the end of the first period. Powered by a mid-ice rocket from freshman Jack Gibbons (apparently his specialty) and a laser from senior Scooter McLaughlin, the ‘Dores were aided in the first frame by a little bit of luck and a whole lot of Keener.

“The Ice Man was a difference maker for us the whole game,” recounted freshman Jack Fogarty. “He stood on his head and kept us in it right til the end. The guy moves like a cat out there, he’s just fun to watch.”

The second period served up a different script for Vandy as the Tide battened down the hatches in net and popped two quick ones in to take the lead 3-2. Then, amidst a slew of Vanderbilt penalties to start the third period that included the seventh dumbest penalty of all time by junior Jim Butler (a 5-minute major for a face wash), ‘Bama widened the lead to 4-2.

Vanderbilt would cut the lead to 4-3 with 2:22 left in the game and nearly tie it in the final 0:30 before ultimately falling to the Frozen Tide by a single tally. Following last season’s narrow loss in the SECHC tournament to the Tide, Coach Bernstein was particularly contemplative after the contest.

“Last season we played our best game and lost 4-2,” he recalled. “This year, we played one of our worst and lost 4-3. Part of me thinks that’s a sign of improvement and progress, and part of me thinks it’s an indication that I failed to deliver from a coaching perspective. I suppose I should focus on the former, but reality has me squarely focused on the latter – what could we have done better heading in, and what do we need to do for the rest of the season to play our very best hockey.”

A final note on the game needs to be extended to the incredible fans that made it out to Centennial to cheer on both teams, especially our Vanderbilt hockey parents (the Kirks, Mr. McCann, and Mr. Gibbons) and the @PenaltyBoxRadio crew who channeled their frustrations with the NHL lockout into some of the best cheering and support we’ve had at a Vanderbilt hockey game in a long time. We hope you can make it out to our next few home games coming up this semester, it’s awesome to play in front of such amazing and passionate fans!

Looking Ahead

On that note, mark your calendars: The ‘Dores will be facing off against Xavier tonight and tomorrow (10/26 and 10/27) at 10:15pm at the Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville. Tickets are free and the hockey will be awesome as the Musketeers roll into town sporting a 7-1 record. We hope to see you at the rink for some great hockey action!

The Vanderbilt Commodores ice hockey club’s opening weekend of the 2012/13 season had a little bit of everything for players, fans, and community members alike. Leading up to, through, and following the weekend, you had wins (and losses) for both teams, high drama for fans, rugged hockey action for the club’s rookies, and a healthy cash injection into the wallets of the Tennessee and Mississippi state police departments. More on that in a moment.

Kicking Off 2012/13 with a “W”

The Ice ‘Dores, or “Arctic Anchors” as freshman defenseman Michael Hite has taken to calling his new team, fired into the weekend with a strong 5-2 win against a talented Ole Miss club that had beaten Vanderbilt four straight times over the previous two seasons heading into the contest.

Sophomore goalie Andrew Keen led the way with 47 saves on Friday in a game that saw the ‘Dores team capitalize on its handful of opportunities, particularly on the powerplay, and the Rebels take a boatload of penalties. Keen, your average mild-mannered Vandy student by day, transformed Clark Kent-style into his new alter ego “The Iceman” before the eyes of nearly 700 fans in attendance.

“I had fun,” said Keen in one of his more energetic, chatty moods following his stellar performance. “It was good.”

Other stars to shine under the bright lights of the SECHC stage were freshman Jack Gibbons and sophomore Daniel Hogue who joined Kyle McCann on the team’s first line. Gibbons notched the team’s first goal of the game by wheeling and rifling a laser top shelf from just beyond the red line at center ice.

“I won’t say I planned to do that,” recalls Gibbons, “but let’s just say I aimed to do that.”

Not to be outdone, “Hoagie” joined in the scoring action with a workman like tally that was more brawn than finesse, more positioning than sauce/snipe/cele. McCann also scored, evening out the goal total across the line to avert any potential hurt feelings or questions about positions in the starting line-up.

Said Hogue, “Us young guns, we’re excited to dethrone the two-time Vanderbilt hockey scoring champ. I’d be more reserved about our intentions, but as we’ve learned in my Microeconomics class it’s a good thing to align the incentives of the individual with the goals of the organization.” Motioning to his chest with both thumbs, Hogue concluded, “So, it’ll be cheddar, dangle, cele for this guy for the rest of the year.”

The highlight of the game was on the defensive end where the Commodores held the Rebels to a single shot during a two and a half minute 5-on-3 power play that felt far longer to the VU players and coaches. Freshman Chad Wyatt and sophomore Zak Karlinski logged valuable ice time on the penalty kill, as did senior Scooter McLaughlin and junior Alan Leeser.

Celebrating in Style

The team basked in the glory of its first victory by doing what most college kids do on a Friday night, hockey team or otherwise: they grabbed a 2am breakfast. The spot? An Olive Branch, Mississippi, favorite – the International House of Pancakes.

Bent on feeding the beast that is his 155-pound frame, junior winger Evan “Pennies” Sclafani set about to lead by example in terms of eating prowess. Eggs, bacon, pancakes, waffles, hash browns, and a strawberry shake – it was a meal fit for a king but perhaps not one fit for a guy due to play another hockey game in less than 14 hours.

Questioning Pennies’s motivations for gorging his face so heavily, Coach Bernstein barked from the far end of the table, “Evan, are you serious?”

Instantly, Sclafani replied, “Coach, it’s simple – you go big, then you go bigger.” Applause erupted across the table along with Coach Bernstein’s pride in the junior’s response.

“‘Go big, then bigger,’ is one of our core values as an organization,” explained Bernstein, “and to hear Evan quote it back to me mid-waffle at 2:30am in the middle-of-nowhere Mississippi in front of 15 teammates, well … it may have been the crowning achievement of my short coaching career.”

A Little Less Hop After IHOP

Saturday’s game had a distinctly different personality than its predecessor. There were fewer chirps and penalties, at least in the first two periods, and the ‘Dores seemed to be just a hair off on their passes and timing. Still, they boasted a 2-1 lead halfway through the second period.

“We weren’t clicking,” said assistant coach Jon Holston, “but give them credit, they kept firing away and ended up getting a couple of nice shots on Andrew [Keen].”

The Commodores did not give in easily, however, as a furious push in the second half of the third period led to a goal by Eliot Rosenfield that cut the lead to 4-3. Rosenfield, who made his season debut in the loss, seemed to have a bit more bounce in his step in the third versus the other skaters on the ice, likely because he missed the previous night’s IHOP run in favor of a late night dip in one of Nashville’s local swimming holes.

“It wasn’t polar-bear-club cold,” recalled Rosenfield, “but it was certainly invigorating, a great way to get pumped up for Saturday’s game. It may have to become my new pre-game ritual!”

Alas, it would be too little, too late, as the team’s frantic press at the end, highlighted by a near tip-in by junior Jordan Zauderer with 12 seconds remaining in game, fell short. Final score – Ole Miss 4, Vanderbilt 3.

Not the Only Loss …

Saturday’s final was not the only loss that the Vanderbilt club endured during its first road trip of the young season. The boys also took a hit to the bank account in the form of two speeding tickets, one by sophomore Greg Kirk on the way down and the other by senior Casey Schelble on the way back.

Said Kirk, “There was no way I was going that fast, just no way.”

Said Schelble, “There was no way I was going that fast, just no way.”

Things could have been worse for the Frozen ‘Dores. Following Friday night’s game, a four-car caravan anxious to arrive at its evening abode (the Best Western) uniformly, and in succession, ran a blinking red four-way stop sign, directly in front of a parked police officer. Following the dispatch of five police cruisers and eight officers, the boys thankfully all received warnings instead of tickets, an early season miracle as far as the boys were concerned.

Back on the Road

The club will look to stay above .500 (and below police radars) as it travels to Atlanta this weekend to play another SECHC rival the University of Florida Gators. The games, slated for 10:15pm ET on Saturday and 4:30pm ET on Sunday, will be played at the Duluth Ice Forum in Duluth, Georgia. As always, we look forward to inviting anyone suffering from Lockout-itis to join us for a great weekend!

* Special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Londoff and Mr. Wyatt for making the trip to Memphis from St. Louis, MO, and Lafayette, LA, respectively. We hope to see you again soon!