Seasons of Love

In goal lights, in road trips
In face-offs, in odd man rushes
In blocked shots, in saves
In laughter, in strife

In four thousand eight hundred and sixty seven minutes
How do you measure a year in the life?

How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love
Seasons of love
Seasons of love

The season’s come and gone, finally. Not that I ever truly want the college hockey season to end, but the season began on September 30th, so we’ve had over six months of hockey. In 4867:09 officially (doesn’t include shootouts, 3×3, or exhibition), we’ve been through an emotional wringer.

It didn’t feel right to post about the women’s season coming to a close while the men’s season was still going. I was really down about how it ended, probably moreso than I am about what happened Saturday night. Maybe because it ended 1-0, and it just hurt to get shut out at home in the playoffs. I hate to go to games without getting to cheer a single goal for my team.

I didn’t know when I was going to get around to writing that final post about the women’s season, but it’s unfortunate that both teams ended up losing their final games, and I’m sad that it was prescient of me to wait.

But there was so much to enjoy about this hockey season. The women started off with a win and tie against BC (which proved to be HUGE for them in the PWR), the men started off with a sweep against MTU (also a huge PWR boost, especially since they faltered a bit against Bemidji with that yucky tie). Both teams overall came up big in non-conference play, which kept them in solid position for the playoffs all year long.

Both teams had HUGE wins, like the men’s 5-0 record against UND and the women’s home sweep of UMTC and 4-1 win against Wisconsin. Both teams had plenty of overtime games to scare us, and dramatic playoff victories, like the women’s 2-1 2OT win against UMTC in the Final Faceoff, and like oh… NEARLY EVERY PLAYOFF GAME THE MEN PLAYED.

More importantly, these players showed us they gave their hearts and minds to every game, and they carried themselves with grace and integrity on and off the ice. At times they made mistakes, or made us frustrated, but we never saw them quit. We saw Dom Toninato miss breakaways, and while he was frustrated, he kept shooting, kept on fighting for that next goal. We saw Lara Stalder step back to play defense and double-shift when the team needed her to, defying the limits of human cardiovascular efficiency, and still step up in 2OT to get that goal against the Goofs. We saw Maddie Rooney and Hunter Miska make save after save they had no business making, sometimes on an unbelievable play by the opponent, and sometimes to bail out one of their teammates.

We saw two teams leave it all on the ice. Who could ever be disappointed with a season like that?