Lights Go Out At TD Garden During Beanpot Championship
BOSTON (AP) — The championship game of the 64th edition of Boston's Beanpot college hockey tournament was delayed for about 30 minutes on Monday night when the rink TV lighting went out in the first period. Power elsewhere in the building was not affected.
Boston University and Boston College were tied 0-0 with 8:53 left in the period when the rink fell dark. The main scoreboard and perimeter advertising boards were still working, as was the power in the press box. Other lighting came on after just a few minutes, but the rink was still dimly lit.
Players skated around in front of their benches trying to remain warm for much of the delay. But after about 20 minutes, the officials went to both coaches and the teams returned to their locker rooms. It was only a few more minutes before the brighter TV lighting was restored, and the teams returned to the ice to resume the game.
"A power surge affected the arena TV lighting," said Tricia McCorkle, a spokeswoman for the TD Garden, which is also the home of the NBA's Boston Celtics and the NHL's Boston Bruins. "We have not determined if the cause was internal or external."
Steady snow throughout the day dumped about 5 inches on the city by 8 p.m., canceling public school classes in Boston for the second straight weekday. McCorkle said building officials did not know whether the outage was weather-related.
First played in 1952, the Beanpot pits the area's four college hockey powers against each other on the first two Mondays of February. Northeastern beat Harvard 5-1 in the consolation game earlier Monday, leaving BC and BU to play for Boston's bragging rights for the 22nd time.
Both rounds of the tournament were postponed by separate snowstorms last year, and Boston University didn't claim its record 30th Beanpot championship until Feb. 23 — the second-latest final in tournament history.
A 1978 blizzard left hundreds stranded at the original Boston Garden for four days before the last were able to evacuate the building. The championship game was played on March 1, more than three weeks after the semifinals.
More recently, the building hosted a Bruce Springsteen concert last week in which he performed for more than three hours, including the song "Point Blank" that contains the lyric: "It's one false move and baby the lights go out."
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