After coming back to earn a 2-2 tie against nationally-ranked Vermont Friday, our men’s hockey team faced off against the Catamounts for the second consecutive night, this time losing a hard-fought game 3-0.

After Vermont scored their second and third goals in the waning minutes of the third period, many of the fans in the student section headed for the exits long before the game was over. This awakened memories of the mass exodus I witnessed during the second intermission of a game on Dec. 9 when Northeastern was defeated by the University of Maine, 7-1, a team now ranked second in th country.

To put it quite simply, I find this act disgusting. It is not as though the team you are walking out on is one comprising of hired mercenaries who claim to appreciate and love the fans who pay ever-escalating prices to watch them play the commercialized spectacle we now know to be professional sports.

These are our peers, young men our age who made the choice to come here and play hockey for Northeastern, knowing that virtually every time they would skate onto the ice, they would be cast as the underdog to one of the many perennial powerhouses in the Hockey East. Yet they have found a way to remain competitive, most notably against our cross-town rivals BC and BU, against whom the Huskies have managed to earn four of their 10 points in the Hockey East. This has put them in seventh place in the conference, and in position to earn a berth in the eight-team Hockey East Tournament.

These young men play for you and for our institution, and they take pride in doing so. It’s time we show them the respect they deserve.

– Jared Sugerman is a freshman journalism major.