Travel log: UND hockey heads to Boston (Update: Friday at 3 p.m.) – Grand Forks Herald

BOSTON — The UND hockey team is on its first road trip of the season to take on Boston University. It’s a travelogue that takes readers behind the scenes on a trip to Boston, highlighting everything that happens outside of the games. Check back over the weekend for updates. For complete UND hockey coverage,

go to UND Hockey Central

page.

Update: 3pm central Friday

Friday morning/early afternoon might be a good time to browse while on the road.

So we used this time to head to the North End and see some historical sites and have lunch.

The Old North Church is famous for its role in Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride. This is where lanterns were hung — “one if by land, two if by sea” — to warn residents of British troop movements before the battles of Lexington and Concord.

If you walk a few blocks down from the Old North Church, you’ll come to countless Italian restaurants that look amazing. Radio analyst Darin Luker found one, Dino’s, while surveying the area. It didn’t disappoint.

It was a small place. There were less than 10 tables. But the entire media team enjoyed their meals, from the chicken cutlet parmesan sandwich to the baked gnocchi to the baked ziti to the spaghetti.

When you ask for food suggestions in the North End, you’ll get a wide variety. I feel like it’s hard to pick a bad one.

After stuffing ourselves with some great Italian food, we continued walking the Freedom Trail to see landmarks like the Paul River House, the Union Oyster House (America’s oldest restaurant), the Old State House, and the site of the Boston Massacre.

We continued walking through Boston Common, saw Cheers, the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and finally headed back to the Boston University area. We may have burned off some of the calories from our meals.

Now it’s time to get ready for coverage of the series opener at 6:00 PM Central at Aganis Arena. The game will be on ESPN Plus and we will have live chat on the Herald site. Check back and join for in-game coverage.

All of our advance stories, as always, are at grandforksherald.com/undhockey.

Update: 9:30 a.m. Central Friday

While the team dined together on Thursday night, so did the media people.

We decided to head to the Bleacher Bar – one of my favorite places to visit in Boston. It’s tucked into the center field wall at Fenway Park. If you didn’t know it was there, you can walk right past it.

You can set up a table right on the center wall of the field to eat and drink.

There are many TVs in the venue to watch matches. Across town on Thursday, the Boston Bruins hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs. Unfortunately for the UND fans in attendance, Derek Forbort was out with an injury.

Media people hung out near Fenway most of the night.

Although it’s usually bustling with a baseball or two near Fenway, it was pretty quiet on Thursday. There was no baseball and no concerts.

We did run into a group of UND fans though. Among the jerseys spotted — Mike Commodore, Zach Parise and TJ Oshie.

Today we will have time to explore the North End a bit before heading to Agganis Arena.

Update: 7 p.m. Central Thursday

The UND hockey team has arrived in Boston.

The Fighting Hawks flew from Grand Forks to the Bedford, Mass., airport on a charter flight Thursday. The plane landed around 1:35 p.m. local time.

The views were beautiful as the falling leaves changed colors. Temperatures are around 40 degrees – which is nice after the snow in Grand Forks this week.

Bedford Airport is about a 30-minute drive from the Boston University area. The team had time to check into their hotel before heading across the Charles River to Agannis Arena, which opened in 2005. They unloaded their gear, then held a one-hour practice from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.

As usual, the players held their weekly team shooting competition at the end of practice.

This week’s winner was freshman linebacker Jake Livanavage. He scored four times to outlast fellow rookies Jaden Perron and Abram Wieb.

The team left Aganis and went straight to their Thursday night team meal.

Schlossman has covered college hockey for the Grand Forks Herald since 2005. He has been recognized by the Associated Press sports editors as the top beat writer for the Herald’s circulation department four times and once as the North Dakota Sports Journalist of the Year. He lives in Grand Forks. Contact him at [email protected].