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Re: Best atmospheres in DIII hockey?
So I've never been to Plymouth, but I've spoken to multiple Plymouth students who refer to hockey there as "a big deal." For a student at a DIII school in New England to refer to any sport as a big deal says a lot in my opinion. Based off the streams of their games that I've watched, the place is very-near to full for most games, even though the MASCAC isn't one of the power conferences out there. It's definitely on my list to visit.
As for the ACHA, the only three I've been to are Ohio State (ACHA DII), UM-Dearborn (ACHA DI), and Ohio U. (ACHA DI). Ohio State gets the friends and family crowd and plays at any one of a few arenas around Columbus (mostly at OSU Ice Rink where the women's NCAA team plays). Generally not worth going to except when they play the odd game at the Taft Coliseum at the Ohio State Fairgrounds. ~70 people in a 5,000 seat arena doesn't provide much atmosphere but its still cool getting to watch college hockey in such a historic old barn (hosted all the pro hockey in Columbus from the 1960's until the Blue Jackets came around). UM-Dearborn is cool because they have an on-campus rink, but at the game I went to there wasn't much of a crowd and no frills. Pretty boring. I've seen pictures of them having bigger crowds in the past but I don't know when that happens, if it still does at all. OU, I think, can go toe-to-toe with just about any DIII arena in terms of atmosphere. I went there for a game against the University of Illinois last year. The rink is pretty basic, but it's on-campus and gets a great student turn-out. The game I went to was a sellout with people standing two and three deep around the boards when they couldn't find a seat. There was even an organized (albeit small) student section doing chants and everything that you would see at a varsity rink. Plenty of DI schools don't even have that. Liberty and Arizona definitely have much better facilities, as well as larger crowds, but I've watched a few of their games on online streams, and from what I saw those places don't rock as loud as Bird Arena at OU.
So I've never been to Plymouth, but I've spoken to multiple Plymouth students who refer to hockey there as "a big deal." For a student at a DIII school in New England to refer to any sport as a big deal says a lot in my opinion. Based off the streams of their games that I've watched, the place is very-near to full for most games, even though the MASCAC isn't one of the power conferences out there. It's definitely on my list to visit.
As for the ACHA, the only three I've been to are Ohio State (ACHA DII), UM-Dearborn (ACHA DI), and Ohio U. (ACHA DI). Ohio State gets the friends and family crowd and plays at any one of a few arenas around Columbus (mostly at OSU Ice Rink where the women's NCAA team plays). Generally not worth going to except when they play the odd game at the Taft Coliseum at the Ohio State Fairgrounds. ~70 people in a 5,000 seat arena doesn't provide much atmosphere but its still cool getting to watch college hockey in such a historic old barn (hosted all the pro hockey in Columbus from the 1960's until the Blue Jackets came around). UM-Dearborn is cool because they have an on-campus rink, but at the game I went to there wasn't much of a crowd and no frills. Pretty boring. I've seen pictures of them having bigger crowds in the past but I don't know when that happens, if it still does at all. OU, I think, can go toe-to-toe with just about any DIII arena in terms of atmosphere. I went there for a game against the University of Illinois last year. The rink is pretty basic, but it's on-campus and gets a great student turn-out. The game I went to was a sellout with people standing two and three deep around the boards when they couldn't find a seat. There was even an organized (albeit small) student section doing chants and everything that you would see at a varsity rink. Plenty of DI schools don't even have that. Liberty and Arizona definitely have much better facilities, as well as larger crowds, but I've watched a few of their games on online streams, and from what I saw those places don't rock as loud as Bird Arena at OU.
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