Evan Moscariello
On Sunday, March 15th, Merrimack’s hockey team beat Providence College at their rink in the playoff quarterfinals to punch a ticket to the Hockey East semi finals at TD Garden. After the game, one of our underclassmen texted the band group chat – “do we get to play there”?
We were the #2 seed my freshman year, and before our trip to TD Garden, it was something we were highly anticipating. The juniors and seniors spent months talking about it, and we knew that if things went how they were supposed to, we would get there. But after two tough seasons and a shaky first half to this year’s, TD Garden wasn’t a topic that came up very much.
That is, until it did.
After a major upset as the #8 seed against the conference #1 seed, Providence, in the playoff quarterfinals, our full band group chat (which is all of the students plus the directors) blew up. Not only were we invited to go, but we got to bring the entire band, including our full drumline. This was exciting for all of us, but for my senior class, it meant something more. After a heartbreaking OT loss to BU in the final in 2023, we had unfinished business at the Garden.
Before we left for the semi final game against UMass at the Garden, I had lunch at the dining hall with one of my band teammates, and our band director, Paul Geresy. In a game between two teams with exceptional goaltending, Paul predicted a low scoring game.
When our bus got to campus, we all worked together to get all of our equipment loaded onto the bus in a timely manner so we could get to the Garden comfortably. After getting on the bus, Paul stepped outside for what became a lengthy phone call right as we were about to leave. After 10-15 minutes, he came on the bus to give us the worst news we could possibly hear: “this bus is dead”.
Immediately upon arriving at MC, our bus driver, Nicole, noticed something wrong with the bus, and this issue caused the bus to be unable to travel any faster than 30mph. After calling for another bus, they instructed us to unload all of our gear and line it all up on the sidewalk ready to load on again when bus #2 arrived. Within 25 minutes, they got bus #2 to campus, and we loaded that bus as fast as humanly possible. When Nicole started the gas, the band broke into loud applause as we left campus for Boston. Paul joked that he had never seen a bus driver get a speeding ticket before, but we were willing to this time!
Despite leaving 50 minutes later than scheduled, Nicole got us to the Garden in incredible time (without speeding!), and the drumline was able to proceed with our planned pre-show performance at the Greatest Bar down the street from the Garden. We played for a crowd of fired up MC fans before marching back to the Garden playing our drumline cadence. I play music for me, but it’s always nice to be appreciated like we were that weekend.
Proving Paul’s prediction to be spot on, we beat #2 UMass 2-0 for the team’s second major upset in a row, earning a ticket to the Hockey East final for the second time in four years. After a great performance for a packed crowd of MC students, the band enjoyed a celebratory bus ride back to school with our driver who saved the day.
The hockey team went on to beat #3 UConn 2-1 the following day to win the Hockey East championship for the first time since joining the conference in 1989.
