Hockey: Tulane’s Green Wave freezes out Tigers, 5-4, Wednesday

Leo’s Iceland, a building slightly reminiscent of a warehouse, is home to one of LSU’s best kept secrets: the ice hockey team.

The Tiger players, suited up in purple and gold jerseys, waited for the 9 p.m. start Wednesday in a makeshift locker room usually used for children’s birthday parties. “Happy Birthday” banners hung on the walls above them.

The Tigers took the ice a few minutes before 9 p.m. to warm up. After a few minutes, LSU fans began to whisper Tulane, LSU’s opponent, wouldn’t show.

The Green Wave appeared a few minutes later from the back of the arena, wearing various green-and-white jerseys — some blank, some with Tulane on them.

The teams pushed, shoved and traded blocked shots for most of the first period. Fans standing at the wall banged on the glass, cheered and yelled insults at Tulane.

LSU scored its first goal in a power play with 52 seconds left in the opening period. They took the lead into the second period.

LSU was up, 3-1, in the second period before the Green Wave scored to come within 3-2 with eight minutes left in the period. LSU then scored on a break-away play to bring the score to 4-2 to end the second.

Tulane tied the score at 4 with 10 minutes left in the game.

A fight broke out between Tulane and LSU that left the referees sorting out penalties for the next 15 minutes.

“It shouldn’t have happened,” LSU coach Leonard Alsfeld said. “We started it. We chopped a guy who was down on the ground, who was out of the play. It made someone really
frustrated.”

Alsfeld said the fight was the mistake of a young player.

“It addresses the issue of people playing for themselves, rather than for the team,” Alsfeld said. “It cost us a few times this year. We lost a terrible game in Lafayette two weeks ago that we should not have lost. It was an issue of discipline creating penalties that allowed the other team to get back in the game.”

When play resumed, Tulane had five players to LSU’s three because of misconduct penalties.

Tulane took advantage of the extra men and scored the final shot with three minutes left in the game to win, 5-4.

“Tulane sports are not in the habit of beating LSU in much,” Alsfeld said. “Wherever they can cop out a little revenge for the glory of the Green Wave, you know they’re going to play with a little more aggressiveness. We didn’t create the same passion for our jerseys as they did for theirs.”

Junior Michael Tymchak said he thought penalties were the main problem.

“The penalties killed us,” Tymchak said. “It’s hard to win the game when you’re down a guy.”

Freshman Kaleb Price said LSU was confident going into the game, but wasn’t able to execute.

“When it came to the third period, we got lazy,” Price said. “They took it to us and scored three goals.”

LSU and Tulane face off again at 10:30 p.m. tonight.

“We’ve gotta seek some revenge,” said Alsfeld.



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Contact Katherine Terrell at kterrell@lsureveille.com

5 comments

Anonymous

Sat Feb 20 2010 06:27

I just have to add that I laughed when I read the 'developing amateur journalism' line.

John

Fri Oct 30 2009 20:44

Honestly, Please spend a little more time developing your amatuer journalism skills instead of bashing the team and their dressing rooms. That team in their "makeshift hockey rink" as you call it, has the heart and the talent to play one of the hardest sports, and they play it in the south which makes it even tougher.

Anonymous

Fri Oct 30 2009 11:45

Good Luck Tigers!

Rusty

Fri Oct 30 2009 11:35

You know, Leo's is what it is...BUT, for you to disparage our rink is relatively classless. We are one of the few if not the only hockey team in the SEC with ice closer than 10 miles to campus. Tulane has to drive an hour each way to play at the so-called "birthday warehouse". Keep in mind that we are trying to build interest in hockey in the south, and especially for the students and community here at LSU. No, we're not football. But when the Reveille prints an article like this painting us as thugs in a warehouse, it isn't helpful and it certainly shows a lack of school spirit and support on your behalf. Hockey is an exciting team sport that requires more skill than any other sport. ESPN ranked it only second to boxing as the most difficult sport. So, in the future, perhaps you might want to focus on how exciting the game is and support our efforts as a student-run athletic club instead of badmouthing something you may not fully appreciate as we do.

E

Fri Oct 30 2009 10:05

Such a poorly written article.

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