Boston Garden.

THE home of Boston sports.

Listen hard enough and you can still hear the raspy voice of Johnny Most bouncing through the rafters....

"There's a steal by Bird.... passes off to DJ, lays it up and in!"

Squint hard enough and there's Bobby Orr, frozen horizontally in time after his overtime goal beat the Blues for the Stanley Cup.

So much history in the old barn on Cause-way street--just look at the banners on the ceiling. No less than 16 Celtic NBA Championships, five Bruin Stanley Cups, and 21 retired jersey numbers (with the recent inclusion of Larry Legend) immortalized in cloth above.

But the only banner that meant anything for me last night was the one that said "Beanpot Tournament Since 1952", and I was about one period late for the consolation game, so I needed get to work. I wasn't carrying my note pad and tape recorder for nothing....

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Boston Garden holds about 14,500 people when filled to capacity, but 20 minutes into the Boston College--Northeastern game, I could almost count the number of non-ushers in the building on one hand. One thing about Boston hockey fans--they know a lemon when they see one. Number three in the nation against number five is one thing; the dregs of Hockey East sloshing through the Beanpot consolation game is another.

As the fans slowly filed in for the big BU-Harvard duel, the name-calling was already beginning. At center ice, a Crimson fan wearing a Bob Sweeney-lettered shirt tried to match wits with a cluster of about 10 Terrier fans; sad to say, the BU bums were outdueling him. "Let's go Radcliffe!" and "R-P-I!" screamed the crazed Terriers, and after swallowing my pride I condescended to meet the ringleader, one Tony Biscardi, a BU alum and first-year grad student.

What possesses one to go insane over a hockey game, I wondered. Somewhat surprisingly, his answer was coherent.

"First of all, you have two of the top teams in the nation going at it," said Biscardi. "So first and foremost, it's a good hockey matchup.

"Secondly, outside of a Tuesday matchup in November [won by BU 4-3], these two teams never meet each other, and there's always the argument over which one is better. Records versus strength of schedule, national rankings, and on it goes. It's so close; if we thought it was going to be a blowout, we'd never get this vocal." (Tell that to BC, I thought.)

"As for playing in the Garden, you know that 14,000 people are hanging on every play, TV-38 is broadcasting the game throughout Boston, and extensive media coverage makes for one intense atmosphere. It brings out the best both in the players and the crowd."

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