Ice Age
The following article appeared in the May/June 2011 issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine.
By Michael Obernauer ’02
When it was over, when the most prolific and captivating hockey season Yale has ever seen reached its all-too-early end, it was the sounds that stood out. There was Jimmy Martin ’11 click-clacking his way up the wooden dais of the interview room, because the captain couldn’t bring himself to take off his uniform, not even his skates—not yet. There was Broc Little ’11, eyes red, speaking softly and deliberately as he tried, not entirely successfully, to keep his voice from trembling. And there was the muffled sound, every time the door swung open, of Minnesota–Duluth’s celebration in a nearby dressing room.
As the saying goes, the higher they climb, the harder they fall. Now was not a time when the graduating seniors—who were about to peel off their Yale sweaters and leave them behind for good—could contemplate, and marvel at, the significance of this scene. The three players who trudged in for their obligatory interviews after losing the NCAA East Regional Final for the second straight year—falling just one win short of the “Frozen Four,” college hockey’s national semifinals—were three of the principal reasons the Yale men’s hockey program had risen to such lofty heights in the first place. Just happy to be here? Not these guys, not anymore.
“There is no question about it: Yale has arrived at an elite level of hockey,” says Bob Brooke ’83, who starred at Yale before moving on to a seven-year career with the New York Rangers, Minnesota North Stars, and New Jersey Devils of the NHL. “That’s not taking away from the special group that this might be. It’s just great for Keith Allain, great for those players, great for Yale. That program has arrived.”
Complete article can be accessed via the Yale Alumni Magazine Web site by clicking here.
