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MANCHESTER, N.H. —  Strolling back to my hotel, the very new Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Manchester, I was surprised to find the entire New Hampshire team hanging out in the hotel lobby watching the Eastern Regional hockey game between St. Clair State and Maine.

They're everywhere!

I was wedged in with three more on the elevator heading up to my room. When I got to my room, I saw some of the coaches walking out to join the others. They're right across from me.

Not great if you're out late

The Miami players were told they could go out and enjoy themselves (within reason, of course) Friday evening.

There's a movie theater close to the team's hotel and Miami assistant athletic director Mike Harris said he'd heard several of the players were planning on catching a movie.

The team does have an 11 p.m. curfew, however, so the RedHawks will have to catch an early show.

Pre-game plans

Miami hasn't played a 1 p.m. game all season, so the team's routine will change a bit prior to today's game. Harris says there's a team breakfast scheduled for 8:30 a.m., then the RedHawks will go on what he described as a team walk at about 11 a.m.

Hockey-mad in Manchester

Ask someone around Manchester about the tournament and you're bound to hear them talk about hockey.

It's almost 8 p.m. and the Florida-Butler NCAA men's basketball game is running on the CBS affiliate, but everywhere you go, people are watching hockey games from the other regionals.

It wasn't until UMass scored an overtime goal to win its game over Clarkson that I realized there were close to 50 people crammed in the Verizon Wireless Arena hallway behind me watching. The roar of approval from the "Bah-ston" contingent was my first clue.