Sports often offer a getaway or a rallying mechanism.
The University of Michigan-Dearborn is going through tragedy and will use sports to rally.
Playing for the first time since the death of teammate Ben McPartlin on Oct. 29, Dearborn will travel to Athens to take on Ohio for a two-game series in Bird Arena on Friday and Saturday.
“They’re going through a little bit of a tough time,” Ohio coach Sean Hogan said.
Hogan said he is not sure how the Wolverines will respond, but it could be with a lot of emotions to play for their teammate.
“They might come out with a ton of fire,” Hogan said.
Ohio defenseman Mike LaFrenier knows Dearborn will play this weekend with high emotions, something Ohio will have to fend off.
“They’re going to rally behind it, I’m sure,” LaFrenier said. “They’re going to make sure they honor him in the best way they can.”
While the tragedy occurred and emotions will be running high in Bird Arena this weekend, there are still two games to be played between a pair of Top-25 teams in the ACHA rankings.
LaFrenier is looking forward to the games because he was unable to play last week’s games at Liberty because of a concussion. After sitting out, returning to the ice is a challenge he will accept.
“You just have to make sure you push yourself extra hard your first couple days back,” LaFrenier said. “With the week off, you get kinda gassed pretty quick so it’s important to get the conditioning back.”
While it won’t make him give up hockey, LaFrenier said having a concussion is something he realizes is serious. In the back of his mind, he’s thinking about it, especially in this day and age where concussion awareness is taken very seriously.
Having one of its top defensemen back in the lineup could help Ohio defensively, but also help with moving the puck. Although he has not scored a goal this season, he has recorded six assists through 10 games.
The puck will drop at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
