Boston Blazers Get Fired Up for Opening Night
Fans of all ages gathered at the TD Garden in Boston on the evening of Saturday, January 9, to watch the Boston Blazers’ opening game. As the clock counted down to the start of the event, the crowd cheered in anticipation. Inflatable streamers glowed bright red throughout the stands, and a tangible excitement spread around the stadium for the Blazers’ season opener against the Toronto Rock.
The team’s cheerleaders, the Sparks, led off the event with an enthusiastic dance routine, sparkling and twirling in red dresses and generating a sense of excitement in the crowd. Following soon after came Scorch the mascot, his fiery red hair impossible to miss as he ran around the field, waving to the fans. The stadium then fell completely into darkness and a sharp echoing drum-beat sounded near the gates to the field. In marched a troop of bagpipe players and drummers, dressed entirely in Scottish attire; they were members of the Massachusetts State Police,The fans cheered as the policemen marched off the field, and a video appeared on the grand center screen. Intense, inspirational music filled the stadium as photos of the Blazers and scenes of the city of Boston flashed in front of the audience. Video clips from previous games showed the power, the courage, and the strength for which the Boston Blazers are so well known. As the video showed, the players came from all over the continent, to defend all shots, to fight for victory, and to be the best in the world. The stands erupted with whistles and screams as the video ended and the voice on the loudspeaker boomed the announcement that the players had arrived.
One by one, the Boston Blazers ran onto the field, high-fiving the people lined up to receive them as bright red lights flashed on their entrance. Among them were defenseman Mitch Belisle (#85), goalies Mike Poulin (#30) and Anthony Cosmo (#44), and last but certainly not least, the team captain and National Lacrosse League MVP “Dangerous” Dan Dawson (#6). Once each of the players had each received applause and had lined up on the field, the announcer’s voice took on an ominous tone and the flashing lights turned blue. Star Wars music began to blare in the background as the Blazers’ opponent, the Toronto Rock, made their way into the stadium.
Bill Squires walked on to sing the Canadian national anthem, followed by the Hingham High School Choir’s harmonious a cappella version of the Star-Spangled Banner. The team’s president, Doug Reffue, conducted the ceremonial ball throw, and the timer was set to 15:00 minutes. It was time for the game to begin.
As the game commenced, both teams put up a fight, with numerous shots on each goal. Although Toronto scored several in the first half of the period, Boston put itself on the scoreboard with 47.7 seconds left when Brendan Thenhaus (#10) scored of off Dan Dawson’s assist. The crowd went wild, and the first period ended with Boston trailing Toronto by five to one.
The second period was even harder fought. Both teams suffered several roughing penalties, and Toronto scored twice in the first five minutes. After Toronto’s seventh goal, Poulin replaced Cosmo in goal, and within the next two minutes, Boston scored twice. Daryl Veltman (#16) scored first, with an assist from Gary Bining (#9), and then the crowd favorite, Dan Dawson, scored again with a shot from the air as he was diving into the crease. The second period ended with a score of Boston 3, Toronto 11.
During the Opening Night halftime show, the Boston Blazers owner Tim Armstrong, president Doug Reffue, and Head Coach Tom Ryan, made an appearance on the field to present Dan Dawson with his MVP trophy for last year’s season. Following Dawson’s award, the Sparks dancers ventured into the stands for an RCN sponsored tee-shirt toss, with the song “We Will Rock You” vibrating in the background. Boys, girls, young friends and old friends, cheered and danced wildly as the dance camera surveyed the crowd; the place rippled with excitement and enthusiasm and devotion to the team.
Quarter three brought about several fights between players, as well as some impressive saves and goals. Blazers goalie Cosmo stopped one shot with his foot, and Dan Dawson made another diving goal after spinning around Toronto’s defense and literally flying across the net. The fourth period brought much of the same, as the Blazers played out the match to the last minute, ending with a total of 36 shots on goal. Despite their valiant effort, the Blazers did not catch up to Toronto, and the end score was 7 to 17.
As a special occurrence for Opening Night, some of the Blazers stayed around for an autograph signing that took place after the game. Although their team was not victorious, the fans were ecstatic until the end, and the game sold a total of 8241 tickets.
After the match, captain Dan Dawson and coach Tom Ryan reflected on the team’s first performance of the season. What started as a good game at the beginning slowed down toward the middle, Dawson commented, as the team started dropping passes and not recovering loose balls. Compared to last year’s opening game, Dawson said that “it was déjà vu all over again, where we expect to win and we don’t.” The coach had similar thoughts about how the team had gone into the game overconfident, possibly because of its two wins in the preseason scrimmages. “The loss is tough,” he remarks, “and the bottom line is that [Toronto] wanted it more than we did.” With one loss under their belt, the Boston Blazers still have fifteen more regular season games to improve their performance. They face Toronto again next week, for their second and final match up with the Rock. In terms of bettering their play for next time, Coach Ryan says, “We’ve got a lot of talented players, we’re good at face offs and getting ground balls.” As to this first loss, Ryan is confident that the team will improve its performance and be more prepared for future games. “We’re a much better team than that.”
Alison Silver is a junior from Concord Carlisle High School who has enjoyed reading and writing from a young age. The editor of her high school newspaper, Alison is our first Blazers Beat reporter of the 2010 season.
The Blazers Beat is a student reporter program which provides high school students access to the Garden on game nights. Students will receive a media credential for a game of their choice, access to the post-game player and coach press conference and can write a game recap which the Blazers will help to publish with their local papers. For more information, contact Krista Olson, Marketing & Event Operations Manager at krista@blazerslacrosse.com.