In 1968 at Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, the Oakland Raiders scored two touchdowns in the final minute to beat the New York Jets, 43-32. Nobody on the East Coast saw the final two scores because NBC pre-empted the game to show a movie called “Heidi.” It caused an uproar, and that indelible moment in football history is called The Heidi Game.
Something similar happened this weekend when UMass came back from 3-0 to beat UNH in double-overtime. It was the best game nobody saw except the 3,076 fans in the building.
Viewers who tuned into NESN and NESN-Plus to watch the game saw Charlie Moore hauling in another bass.
The game was available on a little known (in these parts) streaming service called FloSports, and the only way to watch would have been to pay $12.50 for a month-long subscription.
This was Hockey East’s version on the Heidi Game.
“FloSports began with collegiate track and wrestling, and then moved to the Western Conference Hockey Association,” said Hockey East associate commissioner Brian Smith. “They texted me that since 2012, they’ve added millions of monthly views and hundreds of thousands of subscribers.”
Maybe so, but FloSports was relatively unheard of in New England until last weekend. “We had an opportunity for a one-year deal with them that gave them exclusive rights to the quarterfinals,” said Smith.
During Hockey East’s regular season, the schools own the rights to their games. “But when the playoffs come, the schools give those rights to the league,” said Smith.
Hockey East doesn’t broadcast the quarterfinals because production costs are between $50,000 and $60,000 per game. Thus they are too expensive for Hockey East, and contractually unavailable to individual schools.
It was a catch-22 for NESN, according to programming specialist Daniel Lajoie. “We reached out to a couple of schools. Maybe we didn’t communicate early enough, but we were definitely interested.”
The good news is that NESN-Plus will be televising all three playoff games from TD Garden. “NESN is broadcasting the championships in New England, and FloSports is doing the them outside of New England and internationally,” said Smith. “NESN’s had our championship games forever. It was born the same year as Hockey East.”
NESN stalwarts Tom Caron and Billy Jaffe will work Friday’s semifinals and Saturday’s title tilt.
The UMass radio broadcast will be aired on WHMP.com, anchored by play-by-play voice Donnie Moorhouse, color analyst Brock Hines, and rinkside reporter Adam Frenier.
The No. 2/3 Minutemen (28-8-0) will play unranked Boston College (13-21-3) in the second game of the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. at the TD Garden.
UMass fans can arrive early and watch the 4 p.m. game which pits No. 8/6 Northeastern (25-10-1) against unranked Boston University (16-17-4). Tickets are good for both games and start at $17 in the balcony, $39 in the loge, $41 for the first row of the loge, and $43 for club seats.
The TD Garden seats 17,565, and the average turnout for the Hockey East playoffs the past three years has been 11,697 for the semifinals and 12,165 for the finals. Shop the old fashioned way and buy at the box office where two balcony seats will cost $34 compared to $65.05 using Ticketmaster.
It’s also a good idea to use public transportation, considering it will cost $50 to park at the North Station Garage. The last time I parked in that garage I asked a cop who was directing traffic how long it would take to get out. “This place?” he said. “Forever.”
Many thought that top-seeded UMass had the privilege of choosing to play early or late. “The league makes the decision on when the games are played,” corrected UMass coach Greg Carvel in an email. “We play at 7:30. That’s fine. It’s a non-issue.”
Being the top seed does have its advantages, however, none more important than getting the last line change. Carvel will see who BC coach Jerry York has on the ice and adjust accordingly. He also gets first dibs of which locker room to use, what time he wants to do the press conference and what time he wants the team to practice.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
The Eagles had lost nine of their last ten games prior to beating Providence on back-to-back nights last weekend.
Unless they can pull off a postseason miracle, this will be a year the Eagles will soon want to forget. Their Hockey East record (10-11-1) is the worst since 2001-02 (10-13-1), and their overall record (13-21-3) is the worst since ’92-’93 (9-24-5) under Steve Cedorchuk.
Jerry York was a known quantity when he was hired in 1994. A Watertown native, he’d coached seven years at Clarkson and 15 years at Bowling Green where he won the NCAA title in 1984.
At the Heights, the 73-year-old York has coached the Eagles to nine conference championships and four national titles.
His 1,000th career win was against UMass at the Mullins Center, an 8-0 whitewash.
His team this year is the third-youngest in Division I. The roster includes 11 draft picks and is loaded with upside and pedigree.
Here’s a capsule look, compliments of the BC media guide: Cushing grad David Cotton has four goals in his last six games and is the Eagles’ leading scorer (20 goals). … Andover grad Michael Kim has played 135 games at the blue line. Two of his three goals this season were last weekend against Providence. … North Reading’s Casey Fitzgerald had two assists in Sunday’s 2-1 clincher. He’s one of five eastern Mass. kids on the roster and his father Tom is an assistant GM of the New Jersey Devils. … First round pick Oliver Wahlstrom hasn’t scored a goal in 50 shots since Feb. 1 against UConn. … Sophmore forward Logan Hutsko had two goals against Providence including the series clincher. … The Eagles have scored five goals against UMass, and senior forward Christopher Brown has assisted on four of them. … Twins Jesper and Julius Matilla of Finland have combined for four goals and an assist against UMass the last two years. … Luke McInnis’s father Marty is a BC assistant coach. The elder McInnis played 796 games in the NHL. … Goalie Joseph Woll has allowed seven goals on 60 shots against UMass this season, a porous .883 save percentage. Woll was chosen 62nd overall by Toronto in the 2016 NHL draft.
SCOUTING UMASS
Cale Makar (15-31-46 points) is tied for fourth in the nation in scoring with Harvard’s Adam Fox (9-37-46) and Jacob Pritchard (16-29-45) is tied for sixth. … Freshman Bobby Trivigno, a 152-pound forward from Setauket, N.Y., is UMass’s version of Brad Marchand. In his weekly newsletter, Carvel included a photo of three UNH Wildcats surrounding a smiling Trivigno behind the net. “Bobby Trivigno doing what he does, getting under the other team’s skin and scoring big goals,” wrote Carvel.
Trivigno has five goals and three assists in five games since Feb. 28. “Any line I put Trivigno on becomes our best line,” Carvel told WHMP’s Donnie Moorhouse.
HE PLAYOFF NOTES
Thirteen of the last 30 playoff games at TD Garden have been decided by one goal, and five of those 30 went into overtime. Both of last year’s semifinals went into OT, and in 2016 UMass-Lowell beat Providence in triple overtime. The second game started at 10:36 p.m. and Northeastern wound up beating Boston College shortly before 1 a.m. … The attendance for Friday’s quarterfinals was less than thrilling— 1,716 in Providence, 2,923 at UMass-Lowell, and 1,620 at Northeastern. … Different story at UMass however, where the combined attendance was 6,974 despite the students being on spring break. Indeed, the Minutemen drew more fans than any team at any rink in the Northeast during last weekend’s conference championships— Hockey East, ECAC and Atlantic Hockey. … Early into the second OT on Saturday, rinkside reporter Adam Frenier reminded Brock Hines of UMass’s triple overtime playoff win against Notre Dame on March 6, 2015. “Are you starting to get flashbacks?” asked Frenier.
“Not yet,” answered Hines.
MISC. NOTES
Despite its record breaking offense, not a single UMass player had a hat trick this season, as per Brock Hines. “Niko Rufo grad transfer from Providence last year was the last to do it.” … In the ECAC tournament, Brown scored four goals to complete a shocking two-game sweep of No. 5 Quinnipiac. … Army took AIC to three games in the Atlantic Hockey Tournament. The games drew slightly over 1,000 fans per night into the MassMutual Center. … The NCAA women’s tournament is this weekend at Quinnipiac in Hamden, Ct. On Friday at the Peoples United Center, Cornell plays Minnesota in the first game at 4 p.m., and Clarkson will play Wisconsin at 7 p.m. The winners face off on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.