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Monday, June 7, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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Games at Yost have turned into a non-stop
tirade against refs, the opposing team, its fans
and, most importantly, its goalie. It starts
before the first puck is dropped as fans tell ref-
erees to "check the net!" and after the official
has done so, to "check it again!." The opposing
player introductions are met with newspaper
reading by the student section. And only after
that does the crowd get rowdy.
The student section, dotted with celebrities
like "the penguin guy" and "the guys dressed
as Blues Brothers," extends the length of
the arena, filling up the sections next to and
behind both benches. It also spearheads the
cheering effort of the 6,000-plus fans in the
building, uniting the arena as one in order to
tell the refs they suck, the opposing goalie he's
a sieve, and the opposing parents they are ugly
- repeatedly.
"The kind of people who go to Yost are the
kind of people that want to act like fools," LSA
junior Jamie Fogel said last month. "It's, 'I'm
going to come and act like an idiot. I'm going
to dress like a penguin, I'm going to dress like
Thomas the Tank Engine,' and it's totally nor-
mal to do that."
And when the game stops, the crowd keeps
going. During intermission, the crowd tries to
get a lucky seven-year old riding the zamboni
to do poses that eventually results in taking his
or her shoe off and throwing itonthe ice. When
the shoe goes flying, it is always met with a
thunderous cheer. But that is just a warmup for
the second intermission, which is highlighted
by a rendition of the Blues Brothers song "Can't
Turn You Loose" and has turned into a group
dance for the entire student section.
With the volume, the intermission antics
and the raucous multitude of mean-spirited
chants comes the fact that these fans are some
of the most knowledgeable college hockey fans
in the country. The building will get just as
loud for a good penalty kill as a goal, and they
know a hand pass is legal in the defensive zone.
Most importantly, the fans have shown up
game after game ever since that final game of
Michigan's three-game series with Cornell.
Their dedication level has led to one of the
most significant home-ice advantages in the
country - the Wolverines have won
See YOST, Page 11
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TOREHAN SHARMAN/Daily
The Michigan hockey student section raises a Sweden flag in honor of Swedish-born junior Carl Hagelin. The Michigan crowd has helped the Wolverines to win 79 percent of their home games