Dutchmen hitting the ice on Emerald Isle
Players to get tourist time before games on weekend
Union’s hockey team is going on vacation. Sort of.
Sunday, a travel party of 47 will ship out of the Electric City by bus and head for Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. From there, a flight to Dublin, Ireland. And then onto another bus for the 104-mile trip to Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.
For the next week, the Dutchmen and three other college hockey teams from the U.S., will be the guests of the Irish as they take part in the fourth annual Friendship Four Tournament. Games are Friday and Saturday, so there is time to be a tourist.
And that’s what the Union program is going to do.
Here is a sample of what is in store for the Dutchmen, compliments of Union coach Rick Bennett, who adds some of his own color commentary.
One of the stops along the sightseeing tour is the Crumlin Road Gaol, a former prison in Belfast, which is known to the locals as “The Crum.” It is also known as the Alcatraz of Europe, the last Victorian era prison remaining in Northern Ireland.
It closed in 1996 but is now a major tourist attraction and the Dutchmen travel party will take that in.
“Maybe we can leave a few of our players there,” Bennett deadpanned.
“Only kidding.”
When asked how the team will separate the pleasure part of the trip from the business side, the hockey side, Bennett offered this:
“Stay out of the taverns is one way, I guess,” he said, and again, he was goofing around.
In each of the past three editions of the Friendship Four Tournament, two teams from the ECAC and two from Hockey East have played. Last season, RPI was one of the ECAC teams that participated, along with Clarkson, the 2017 tournament champion.
“We will do the pleasure part at the start of the trip,” Bennett said. “Guys will be able to spend time with family who are going. We get in Sunday and we’ll have Monday. We will get to start
practice on Tuesday.”
The games will be played in the 11,000-seat SSE Arena in Belfast.
Before the Dutchmen play Yale on Friday (10 a.m. EST, no radio broadcast), the Dutchmen can forget about hockey for a few days and get the chance to look around.
Bennett said there is a function featuring all four teams (Boston University and Connecticut are the other two schools in the tournament) at the Titanic Museum, a tribute to the failed “unsinkable” ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912.
The ship was built in Belfast. “Everyone is pretty excited about the trip,” said Union senior captain Cole Maier. “Some of the things we are going to see should be really cool.”
Also on the itinerary is a visit to one of the old Irish castles that, the players were told, has been used for filming in the HBO
series “Game of Thrones.” Many of the Dutchmen are hooked on the show and are looking forward to a glimpse of where part of it has been shot.
Junior forward Anthony Rinaldi said he is very much looking forward to that as he is a big fan of the show. Maier has not invested nearly as much time in the program as his mates, but he will tag along.
“I am so many hours behind the ball now,” Maier said when asked how much he watches “Game of Thrones.” “I feel like I should have watched more of before the tour. The only thing I know about “Game of Thrones” is that is sounds like everyone gets killed at some point or another.”
twilkin@timesunion.com 518-454-5415 @tjwilkin