The road to Raleigh: How UNC hockey found its fight
By: Eva Patel
A few years ago, Jonah Bortone didn’t even know what NC State was.
The Swiss junior arrived in North Carolina this fall as a transfer from Temple University, only having seen glimpses into the Tobacco Road rivalry from clips online.
And yet: “From second one of the game, I hated State.”
It’s one thing to recognize the fierce rivalry that runs deep within the locker room but another to become a part of it. Over the course of the team’s month on the road, Bortone got to know his teammates through long bus rides, late-night conversations and scrappy victories. By puck drop at the Wolfpack’s home arena, he was fully bought in to achieve UNC’s one goal: beat State.
The month began with a weekend in Tuscaloosa, Alabama against the Crimson Tide. The Tar Heels took on the first game right off their nine-hour bus ride and fell, 7-1. Still, the team stuck together: they gathered in one of the guys’ rooms, talking and sharing stories for hours until 2 a.m.
“Once you’re there, it’s just the best way to have team bonding because you’re stuck with the guy. So you have to talk and get to know each other,” Bortone said.
For Bortone and others new to the team, the proximity is the quickest way to get to know everyone and learn the culture. The next day, UNC pulled out a 6-3 win over Alabama.
The Tar Heels’ next challenge was the Raleigh Fall Classic. Closer to home but still not quite there, they took on three games in three days at Lane Arena.
When the first resulted in a 10-4 loss to Illinois State, the team was determined to shift momentum the next day against Louisville. UNC was down 2-1 after the first period but came from behind to secure a 4-2 lead. From there, it was a battle to continue to create opportunities to stay ahead. They did exactly that, securing a hard-fought 5-4 victory.
“I think it was really a moment in our season. I hope that it was the turning point where it was like, ‘we can fucking play hockey,’” Bortone said. “And we can be together, and when we are together as a team, we can beat anybody.”
UNC wrapped up the weekend with a 5-4 overtime victory against Northern Illinois. Bortone recorded nine points in the first five games of the month.
The next game was their last away from home — and perhaps their most important. It was the matchup with the most fabled stories and intense talk. It was one the locker room looked toward with “fire in their eyes.” For Bortone, it was an easy feeling to pick up.
“When you have 28 guys around you that just feel it deep down — I’m talking about all the seniors, all the guys from North Carolina — they hate State. It’s almost like the season doesn’t matter if you win three games against State,” Bortone said.
The hatred was palpable in the seniors who had been competing against the Wolfpack for years, who had the most memorable moments of their careers as a result. For some, it’s playing in front of a crowd of 24,000 for the Frozen Finley. For Cam Glonek, it was winning the Governor’s Cup. For Daniel Kauber, it was scoring the overtime winner in front of Wolfpack fans, his favorite goal of all time.
It’s these stories that make it obvious: “You can feel these games are different. It’s better than the playoff games. It’s better than anything,” Bortone said.
Their final weekend of competition in October was a chance to add to the rotation of future late-night stories.
NC State got on the scoreboard first, but junior Ander Andreev came up big in goal to keep the Tar Heels in the fight. While the first period ended with them down 1-0, the team rallied together in the second. UNC scored four goals in an explosive effort to take a 4-2 lead by the 40-minute mark.
“Didn’t let the crowd get into it too much, which really helps us out, get our game moving. And then we really just kept pounding him from there,” junior Owen Kenny said.
Kauber scored the fourth goal of the game — and UNC’s third in seven minutes — to shut down a crowd that had been on their feet, celebrating an NC State goal just 14 seconds prior.
“It’s always nice to keep them quiet because when you’re facing a crowd that has that much hatred towards you, it’s always nice to play without it for a little while,” Kauber said.
He then connected a pass to Bortone, who scored and got to pull out the celly he had been planning on the car ride to the rink.
The NC State crowd made their feelings known, even directing chants toward Andreev after the Wolfpack scored. The Tar Heels embraced the hostility from the stands to fight for the 6-4 win.
“We’ve tried to make a little bit of an emphasis on fighting for each other. No matter what the score is, we’re going to battle for one another. We love each other and we’re just going to keep on going and Ander’s no different,” Kauber said.
Kauber emphasized battling until the last whistle, knowing well how the tides of the rivalry could change.
“It’s really about playing the same way, playing with the same sense of urgency, just so that we don’t get complacent. Because crazy things have happened, we’ve come back from them when we were four goals down. We know what it’s like,” Kauber said.
And the scales did tip in NC State’s favor the next day, as they came out on top against UNC’s home crowd. But the rivalry’s biggest game of the year, the Governor’s Cup, is still ahead, and the team is already looking forward to it.
“Everything that we do every week, and every game that we play every week, is to be prepared on Gov Cup night and be able to erase what happened last year and just write a new chapter of UNC Hockey against State,” Bortone said. “And I’m gonna be honest — it’s in three months and I’m already thinking about that probably every day.”
