For some reason, this unexpected display really disgusts the Southie guy, and he starts screaming at the cops that all he was trying to do was to get at somebody that suckered him for no reason at all.

Well, you know the cops don't buy that stuff at all, and they're forcing him against a wall, keeping him away from the Tech guys, who all want a piece of him by now. People are running towards the scene from all over the Arena, even the Latin hockey team, who were in the showers and threw on pants or something to come up and watch.

Eventually the guy's buddies come and get him and hustle him off, and everything quiets down. The cops clear out the Arena, and everyone heads for Symphony station, where there'll probably be another jam. The last MTA jam took place after the Southie-Charlestown game a few weeks ago, and two guys got stabbed.

So Tech is king of Boston now, but over the weekend Ahern and a couple of other guys catch the goddamn flu, and on Tueseday, when Tech plays Charlestown, Freddy can't even skate past the red line he's so tired.

Later, after Charlestown blows Tech out of the Arena, 8-1, Hart is telling me about it, smiling like a sonovabitch the whole time. "The way Charlestown was skating," he says, "they would have beaten anyone in the state that day. Even Needham. They were really up for it."

"Were there any jams?" I asked. "My brother told me that when the Tech guys began singing that song, the Charlestown guys just left quietly."

Hart shoots me one of his "Are you shitting me?" looks. "Those Charlestown guys are all longshoremen, right?" he laughs. "They think Tech is soft pussy, f'crissake. They would have eaten those guys up." Dick laughs again, then goes downstairs to dress for the game. English is playing Tech today, and it is no secret that Hart has to score if English is going to win.

Well, Hart spends most of the game in the penalty box, and he never does score, but when its 4-0, Tech ahead, he does hit Chucky Carrigan a real good shot along the boards, and Carrigan crumples to the ice with a shoulder separation. Hart, of course, gets a major penalty for this, but when he's sitting in the box, with the big, blue 8 on his back advertising that, yes, Hart has been hacking again, he knows it's worth it.

"That's the best two minutes you ever spent," a teammate tells him later. But Hart knows that his finest moment came between the periods, when he and I are drinking out of the bubbler downstairs, and Martell comes down the corridor. Here is Martell, you understand, with his leading scorer, and the leading scorer in the City, out for the game and maybe a couple of more. He gives Hart the goddamn dirtiest look you can imagine, but doesn't SAY anything, and Hart just gives him a hulking Charlestown grin and clomps down the passageway in his skateguards. Tech wins 4-2, but Hart still beats Carrigan. That, basically, is what the Arena is all about.