The Bowling Green State University hockey team had a memorable trip to Orono from their Ohio campus for the Ice Breaker Cup Tournament at Alfond Arena Friday and Saturday evenings.

Bus trip, that is.

They were scheduled to take a commuter flight but, according to assistant coach David Smith, the plane couldn’t handle all of their luggage and equipment.

“They told us they would have shipped our luggage and equipment separately, cost-free, but the school would have needed to have had a prior freight shipping history with Continental Airlines. We didn’t,” said Smith.

He also said the idea of establishing a shipping freight agreement went by the wayside “because the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] hasn’t issued any since Sept. 11 [the terrorist attacks],” explained Smith.

They looked into changing flights but flights from Boston to Bangor were all booked up. Continental did refund all of their money.

Assistant coach Tim Alexander contacted Lakefront [bus] Lines and the Falcons left Ohio at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night.

They arrived in Syracuse, N.Y., at 3:30 a.m. and left on Thursday at noon. They pulled into the Alfond Arena at 9:30 p.m.

There had been a banquet for the teams earlier in the evening and they kept the food warm for the Falcons. They ate when they arrived and then had a practice.

But the adventure didn’t stop there.

They went to board the bus at 11 p.m. for the trip to the Ramada Inn in Bangor only to find that the bus had a dead battery.

The players, as is their custom, play a game of tag during stoppages on long road trips in order to loosen up. The lights were on at Morse Field so the Falcons had a game of turf tag.

“I think a couple of guys got turf toe,” grinned senior center Greg Day.

They eventually revived the battery and reached the Ramada at 1 a.m.

The players and other members of the traveling party said the trip wasn’t bad.

“It was a seven-movie trip,” said student trainer David Hamen. “I thought once we crossed into Maine, we were just about there. The rest of the trip took forever. But it wasn’t bad. It was nice to see New York.”

“Time went by pretty quickly,” said senior right wing Scott Hewson. “We had some good flicks. And the meal was real good when we got here. We had some lobster.”

UM’s Dillingham lost for season

Senior defensive central midfielder Nancy Dillingham, one of four University of Maine women’s soccer captains, has been lost for the season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee.

The Mississauga, Ontario, native suffered the injury in a 4-0 win at Marist College on Sept. 30.

Dillingham had anchored the Bear defense as a tenacious and hard-nosed sweeper for two and a half seasons before coach Scott Atherley moved her up into the midfield near the tail end of last season. That is where she had been playing this season.

Dillingham will have surgery, probably in November, according to Atherley.