MINNEAPOLIS- The road can often take athletes to interesting places, but no matter how fun a city is, playing on the road is never an easy task. This past weekend, I followed the DU hockey team to Minnesota to not only watch two amazing college hockey games, but to also follow the routines and actions of the players on the road.
“I think I sleep more on the road, nice hotel rooms. Our main focus is on the game at hand. I think when we come on the road it is a bit more secluded for us and allows us to prepare for the big games,” said senior Adrian Veideman.
The Pioneers at the minimum will play at least 16 road games this season, traveling everywhere from Madison, Wisconsin to Anchorage, Alaska to Oxford, Ohio. DU currently has an 8-5 road record on the season and finished 11-7-1 on the road last season.
“You are stuck in a hotel most of the time when you are on the road. That is the only difference. You got a little freedom to do what you want, watch a lot of movies in the hotel,” said senior goaltender Glenn Fisher on the difference between home and the road.
Most trips require the Pioneers to fly, in which case they usually fly out the day before the game and fly back to Denver the morning after their final game. This past weekend, DU left on Thursday morning, arrived at the hotel around 3 p.m. and had a quick snack before a 5 p.m. practice.
This past weekend the hotel was within walking distance of the arena and allowed the players to walk over when they wanted to before the scheduled time of practice or game. Friday and Saturday were similar as both days, there was an hour practice in the morning and lunch at the hotel before the game in the evening.
“The biggest thing we notice like coming into a place like Minnesota is the crowd, the atmosphere, a different feel, a lot louder,” said Veideman.
Marucci Arena, where the Gopher’s play, seats over 10,000 and has two student sections on opposite ends of the ice close to triple the size of Denver’s student section.
“I like going to Minnesota and Wisconsin. Its fun playing in their barns. There is big attendance when you go to those places. It is different than playing in front of just 7,000 like Magness. The student sections are a lot larger and they get the fans into it and it is a lot of fun,” said Fisher.
During both games over the weekend ,especially on Saturday when the Gopher’s won 5-4, there were numerous chants during the game celebrating not only goals, but power-play opportunities and Denver mistakes.
Also as you can imagine, there is lots of equipment to transfer from city to city and that is why head equipment manager Lee Greseth uses a truck to transfer the sticks, skates and bags from Magness to DIA. Each player has their own duffle bag to put their skates, pads and jerseys in, while there is a bigger bag to put all the players sticks in. Also equipment like a skate sharpener, blade tape, pucks, clipboard’s and extra jerseys are also brought on every road trip.
Sports information director Erich Bacher noted that their game at Michigan Tech has to be their most difficult travel day of the season coming up in a couple weeks. DU has to fly to Minneapolis and then take a short flight to Green Bay, Wisconsin and then bus up to Houghton, Michigan where the school is located.
When asked where his favorite place to play is, Veideman responded with, “I think Wisconsin is one of the team’s favorites. It is a great place to play in and they got great people up there.”
And asked about his all-time favorite road trip, “Boston and Columbus because of the Frozen Four obviously, but other than that every time we play a WCHA team it is very competitive and always something to look forward to.”
The road is not always fun, but Denver has made it a habit of doing quite well away from the comfy confines of Magness Arena.
