Travel journal: UND hockey heads to Boston (update: 5 p.m. Saturday)
Nov. 4—BOSTON — The UND hockey team is on its first road trip of the season to take on Boston University. This is a travel journal to take readers behind the scenes on the trip to Boston, highlighting everything going on outside of the games. Check back throughout the weekend for updates. For full UND hockey coverage,
go to the UND Hockey Central
page.
Update: 5 p.m. Saturday
UND played at Agganis Arena for the first time in 10 years on Friday night.
The arena hasn't changed a whole lot. Attendance was 4,390, which means it wasn't very close to being sold out for the game between traditional college hockey powerhouse programs. That's the nature of being located in a pro sports city.
Arena upgrades may soon be on the way at Agganis, which opened in 2006.
BU's campus runs along Commonwealth Avenue. Agganis is sandwiched between Comm Ave., and the Charles River.
Right across the street from Agganis Arena is a bit of history — Braves Field (now known as Nickerson Field). It's where the Boston Braves played their home games before moving to Milwaukee. Babe Ruth played his final pro season there in 1935.
Parts of the stadium are gone but parts still stand.
The field now hosts BU's men's and women's soccer and men's and women's lacrosse. It celebrated 100 years in 2015.
Update: 3 p.m. Central, Friday
Friday morning/early afternoon can be a good time to explore while on the road.
So, we used that time to head to the North End and see some historic sites and eat lunch.
The Old North Church is famous for its role in Paul Revere's Midnight Ride. It's where lanterns were hung — "one if by land, two if by sea" — to alert residents of British troop movement prior to the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
If you go a couple of blocks down from Old North Church, you'll wind up walking past countless Italian restaurants that all look amazing. Radio analyst Darrin Looker found one, Dino's, while researching the area. It did not disappoint.
It was a small place. There were fewer than 10 tables. But the entire media crew enjoyed their meals — from the Chicken Cutlet Parmesan Sandwich to the Baked Gnocchi to the Baked Ziti to the spaghetti.
When you ask for food suggestions in the North End, you'll get a lot of different ones. I get the feeling it's hard to pick a bad one.
After filling up on terrific Italian food, we continued walking down the Freedom Trail to see sights like Paul Revere's house, Union Oyster House (the oldest restaurant in America), the Old State House and the site of the Boston Massacre.
We continued walking through Boston Common, saw the Cheers, the Boston Marathon finish line and eventually made our way back to the Boston University area. Perhaps we burned off some of the calories from our meals.
Now, it's time to get ready to cover the series opener at 6 p.m. Central in Agganis Arena. The game will be on ESPN Plus, and we'll have a live game chat going on the Herald site. Check back and join for in-game coverage.
All of our preview stories, as always, are located at
grandforksherald.com/undhockey.
Update: 9:30 a.m. Central, Friday
While the team eats dinner together Thursday nights, so do the media folks.
We decided to head to Bleacher Bar — one of my favorite spots to go in Boston. It is tucked inside the center field wall at Fenway Park. If you didn't know it was there, you may walk right past it.
You can pull up a table right on the center field wall to eat and drink.
There are plenty of televisions in the place to watch games. On the other end of town Thursday, the Boston Bruins hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs. Unfortunately for UND fans who attended, Derek Forbort was out with an injury.
The media folks ended up hanging out near Fenway for most of the night.
Although it's usually buzzing because of either baseball or two concert venues adjacent to Fenway, it was pretty quiet Thursday. There was no baseball and no concerts.
We did, however, come across a group of UND fans. Among the jerseys spotted — Mike Commodore, Zach Parise and T.J. Oshie.
Today, we'll have time to explore the North End a little before heading to Agganis Arena.
Update: 7 p.m. Central, Thursday
The UND hockey team has arrived in Boston.
The Fighting Hawks flew from Grand Forks to the airport in Bedford, Mass., on a charter flight Thursday. The plane landed at about 1:35 p.m. local time.
The views were beautiful coming in with the fall leaves changing colors. The temperatures are in the 40s — which feels nice after the snow in Grand Forks this week.
The Bedford airport is about a 30-minute drive to the Boston University area. The team had time to check into their hotel before heading across the Charles River to Agganis Arena, which opened in 2005. They unloaded their gear, then held an hour-long practice from 5-6 p.m.
As usual, the players held their weekly team shootout competition at the end of practice.
This week, the winner was freshman defenseman Jake Livanavage. He scored four times to outlast fellow rookies Jayden Perron and Abram Wiebe.
The team left Agganis and went straight to their Thursday night team meal.
