It could have weighed them down. Instead, it gave them wings.
The 13 seniors on the Trinity College hockey team knew all season that the Division 3 Frozen Four would be held on their campus at the Koeppel Community Sports Center.
Every time they took their home ice for a practice or a game, that thought would find a way into their minds, either bidden or not.
“Going into this year we had a lot of pressure,” said senior forward Gerard Marretta. “All of us seniors were talking about it when we found out we were hosting. That was always in the back of our minds, from the first practice of the year.”