Roaming The Rinks

December 23, 2007 - Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania

Day 3 of my road trip found a rainy afternoon trip to Belle Vernon, PA, just south of Pittsburgh.  This is Steeler country, and I figured a sunday afternoon game during football season would be lightly attended.  I was right, although the Steelers had played the night before.  Todays game was the second game of the weekend I would see in the new Mid Atlantic Hockey League, the fledgling single A minor pro league.  The Mon Valley Thunder represent a somewhat suburban area in the Monongahela Valley.  I guess spelling out the entire name would take up too much room on a jersey.  One Belle Vernon native let me know that the arena was built in the late 60's, and in fact was the preseason training camp home of the Pittsburgh Penguins for some time in the mid 70's.  Pretty neat!

The arena itself sits back off of route 51, and is not visible from the road, but the sign is.  It is also listed as the Rostraver Ice Garden, for the Township in which it sits, but no such designation is listed on the building itself.  My first impression was that this is basically a rec rink.  When entering the lobby there was a table selling tickets, which were generic tickets like you would buy at a 50/50 raffle.  To the right after entering is a large area of glass windows overlooking the ice itself.  In the lobby there is the requisite skate rental counter,and a room used for Thunder merchandise such as t shirts and sweatshirts, etc.  Past that there are some loosely assembled tables and a half dozen arcade games.  On the far wall in the lobby is the snack bar and further to the left the beer garden with some seating.  All of the facilities look pretty rundown and in need of an update.  I did have some home-made chocolate chip cookies at the snack bar, and they were good.  Inside the arena itself you find about 10 rows of seating on each side.  The seating is wooden plank bleachers, and the pitch of the seating is not nearly steep enough to see over the person in front of you, however with a sparse crowd that was not an issue.  It is very cold inside, and the glass is very badly scratched. There also seems to be an overabundance of signs in the building advising visitors what they cant do such as "dont throw anything against this wall", or "No skates on the bleachers". The seating capacity is certainly large enough for this league, in fact I hope they attract some bigger crowds in the future.  $8 got me my general admission ticket.  On the far end of the rink is a neat bar/restaurant which is fully enclosed and overlooks the ice.  There is a seperate entrance to "Murph's Pub", and a fair size crowd watched the game from there.  The roof is all wooden and arched , and reminds me of a couple arenas I have attended in Quebec.  There is an adequate score board above center ice.  The building also houses an arena football team. I would guess the seating capacity at about 1500.

The game presentation itself was nothing to write home about as they started music over the PA with about 5 minutes left in the warmup, and didnt really have much music during stoppages.  The PA system was rather muffled, but the goal horn was certainly loud.  I really like this league and the fact it gives more pro hockey options to some smaller markets, and also another place to play for aspiring players, I am just hopeful that the attendance increases enough to sustain the team.  I counted 80 people total in the seating area during the first period, and would estimate about another 40 in the restaurant.  This does not make for a successful day for the team owners.  This is definitely grass roots hockey, and I enjoyed my experience at the Ice Garden.  The game itself was quite entertaining.  There were no fights, but the game was hard fought.  I had to pull for Valley Forge, and the visiting Freedom team has been rumored numerous times to be folding if one pays attention to internet message boards.  They only brought 11 skaters to this cross-state game, and you could tell the guys were tired.  They also had mismatched uniforms as one guy had a white helmet while the others were black, and a couple other guys sported different socks.  There was no equipment manager either.  I really found myself pulling for this underdog team, and sure enough they took a 3 goal lead into the last 5 minutes.  In some spirited play the Thunder scored 3 goals near the end to tie it, 2 with the goalie pulled.  This really got the small crowd excited.  I also enjoyed this late flurry.  The Freedom did come back and win in a shootout.  The game was truly entertaining.   What happened at the end was also unique.  Despite their comeback being struck down by the visitors the Thunder players all left their sticks, gloves and helmets on the ice after the last whistle and all lined up in the lobby.  Each player wished the fans a merry Christmas, and were happy to discuss the game.  Also at the exit an excited guy was handing out free Cheetos to everyone and thanking all for coming.  I am guessing the guy handing out the snacks was the team owner.  I thought these gestures were awesome, and as I said-grassroots.  It is for such a unque experience that I had such a fun time at the Ice Garden, despite the Arena being a little outdated.  If they ever get a big crowd here I am sure the place would be rockin'.   

Other information about the Mon Valley Thunder is available at: Thunder home

Other information about the Ice Garden Arena is available at:  Venue home