In most sports, athletes are creatures of habit.
Not hockey, and especially not the three River Rivals schools — Amesbury, Newburyport and Triton — that split ice time at the Graf Rink.
Six a.m. and 9 p.m. practices have become routine over the years for these schools. In fact, the only thing that has been consistent is the inconsistency in which these teams have had to take ice time.
With a partnership in sharing athletic facilities between fellow Byfield schools, Triton and Governor's Academy, and the relatively brand new Whiston-Bragdon Arena that opened last season, the Vikings have been able to take steps to come close to an actual routine practice schedule using GA's rink three to four times a week at 2:30 p.m. following school.
Triton also has three games scheduled at GA, the first of which is on Monday against Lynnfield at 7:15 p.m.
But, perhaps the biggest impact is the fact that the Vikings now have the opportunity to play on a large ice surface each week after playing on the small ice surface for so many years at the Graf Rink. With so many other league games played on the road on big ice surfaces like Merrimack College in North Andover and Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, the Vikings are now better prepared for those games.
"It's always a challenge to go on the road anyway, but when you are on a smaller ice rink, there's definitely a slight advantage (for Triton opponents) playing on big ice," said Triton coach Kevin Dodier, who thanked associate athletic director at GA Jeff Wotton for being so accommodating to Triton. "The neutral zone is much bigger, there is more space behind the net, and your conditioning needs to be better. Also on smaller rinks, it is more physical. Not that it's not physical on a big rink, but there's more room for speed, which I think helps us out because we are fast and not real big."
Dodier said he also believes Whiston-Bragdon will be an exciting environment to play in considering its close proximity to Triton, its state of the art facilities, and how loud the arena becomes.
"We scrimmaged over there against the Governor's Academy B team, and it got quite loud," said Dodier, comparing noise volumes to that of the Graf Rink. "We're not playing any River Rival teams, otherwise we might not have been able to fit all our fans. Hopefully, we'll draw a large crowd, and it will be loud in that place."
Senior defender Carson True saw another unique advantage his team will now hold over Newburyport and Amesbury. His team will no longer have the Clippers or the Indians looking over its shoulders before and at the end of practices when those teams are coming in to take their time.
"It's really good to be away from other teams, who practice before or after us because now they can't see what we are working on and we can keep our little secrets," True said. "It definitely is not as important as some other sports to have your secrets, but you do play a lot of systems in hockey, and they vary from team to team. There's ways to beat those teams if you study them to find ways to beat them, and it's that much better to take full advantage of keeping ourselves hidden."
Whether practicing at Whiston-Bragdon will turn out to be a big advantage over other River Rival teams, only time will tell. But to have the opportunity to play at a world class facility during more regular hours certainly is a step above what hockey players in this area have had to endure over the years.
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