We're back from a foray to Maine to visit Sarah's family. We did something this weekend that I'd never done before: seen a BU-Maine game at Alfond Arena. BU played pretty well... after the first period. Problem being that they played like crap in the first 20 minutes, giving up the two goals that stood for Maine's 2-1 win. Now, because you didn't ask for it, my ranking of the Hockey East arenas:

NR. Mullins Center, UMass-Amherst. Never been, the only Hockey East venue I've never been to. BU's lone trip to Amherst this season is on the same day as CBI regionals. Wait 'til 2004-05, I suppose.

8. J. Thom Lawler Arena (ne Volpe Sports Complex), Merrimack College. OK, they've renovated Volpe (which we called the Simplex, given that it was wooden bleachers and an ice surface), but they're not moving up until I get to go see the finished product.

7. Schneider Arena, Providence College. Completely drab, soulless building which has always been about a third-full when I've gone to games there. There's also been a lack of a crowd, though that seems to be improving (last night's game against UMass had about 2/3 capacity).

6. Matthews Arena, Northeastern University. Even though it was renovated within the last 10 years, it still looks like a dump. They also have some of the least comfortable seats in Hockey East. Though they at least have seat backs, unlike some of the people who'll be coming up. Crowd is usually pretty vocal, and they hate us, so that always ratchets things up. It's also fairly easy to get to as long as you're not driving.

5. Conte Forum, Boston College. The first of the new Hockey East arenas, it's also my least favorite. It has nothing to do with the team that plays there, but rather the relative crapitude of the building. Many of the seats do not have backs. There are windows that put light on the ice during day games (though you don't have many of those anymore). The audio is horrific. The traffic to get out of the place nightmarish (though taking the T is reasonably simple). Being new it does have amenities that older places do not have. But it's middle of the pack, no doubt.

4. Tsongas Arena, UMass-Lowell. It's a great building, but it's really not UML's (the AHL Lowell Lock Monsters are the major tenant). The building holds over 6000, and it's rare to have it even half full. So while it gets points for being new, it loses points for atmosphere. It may also be the seediest location for Hockey East home ice, though the neighborhood around Matthews can be tricky.

I was actually a much bigger fan of the Tully Forum, Lowell's home ice when I first started going to away games. A Depression-era building, it was dumpy but lively. Out in the middle of nowhere, you either had to subsist on concessions (which were pretty good and reasonably priced) or dare a walk up the road (no lights or sidewalks) to a Chinese restaurant in a colonial-era house. Apparently the Forum had a very colorful history back in Lowell's lower division days, as Dave Hendrickson recounts here.

3. Alfond Arena, University of Maine-Orono. A pretty high ranking for a building I've been to once, and is actually kind of dumpy, but the crowd was very into the game and not as rude to the visiting fan as I'd heard. The building is one of those 1960s tent-looking constructions where the roof is wood and some sort of crushed-mineral paneling that I always think has asbestos in it. There are many bench seats without backs, though they're so close together that backs would wipe out what little aisle space there is already. They could have the worst sound system in the league; even when it was silent it was a chore to hear what was being said.

Still, it was a fun place to see a game and I'd go back no problem.

2. Whittimore Center, University of New Hampshire. It's new, great sight lines, and the crowd is into the game, for the most part. The fans can be annoying (they're still getting used to being good, I think), and parking can be problematic (it always seems like we're parked a mile away). Still, it's a great facility.

Though I would be remiss if I didn't mention Snively Arena. Lively Snively was this wooden airplane hangar type building with wooden bleachers. The press were herded up on some sort of catwalk. Even so, I always enjoyed going up there for games. Concessions were cheap though limited access points meant missing game time. Still, fun atmosphere.

1. Walter Brown Arena, Boston University. Yes, I'm a homer. Sue me. Even though it's a concrete bunker with a corrugated metal roof that's low enough for pucks to hit, it's our concrete bunker with a corrugated metal roof that's low enough for pucks to hit. Besides, it's hard for me to speak ill of a rink I've overnighted in twice.

And as an added bonus, my five favorite non-Hockey East arenas.

5. Fleet Center, Boston MA. BU seems to do pretty well there, but it's too big and impersonal. And for all the Beanpots I've seen won there, the biggest moment I've spent there that was college hockey related didn't involve the Terriers at all - it was the 1998 final where Michigan beat BC.

4. Bright Center, Harvard University. We play Harvard every year just before Thanksgiving, which means I go to one game here every other year. It's not a bad building, but it's oddly shaped and has very low glass relative to the compact seating area. I do love all the team pictures and historical stuff, and I have great memories of walking over for the 1990 tilt with some fellow RAs.

3. Yost Arena, University of Michigan. Nice house, good crowd, but the hockey as Rocky Horror Picture Show vibe is off-putting. It would have helped if the one game I'd seen here actually been a game (I got to see the Wolverines pummel Western Michigan).

2. Gutterson Fieldhouse, University of Vermont. Unbelieveable crowd, especially when you consider that it was a healthy mix of students and locals. They may be all granola, but when it's game time, it's game time.

1. Boston Garden, Boston MA. 1991: I'm up in the balcony loge, which I swear is a section of seats bolted to the ceiling. We have to bend down to see the scoreboard. I'm with my friend Leo at the Hockey East title game. It's OT, and Shawn McEachern goes streaking up the right side. He fires. Game. Bedlam. Even in the bloodiest of nosebleeds, bedlam. I miss that building.