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The N.H.L. lockout may have you down, but don’t make the mistake of thinking there’s no hockey. There’s always lots of hockey – as in Maine this weekend.

The most frequently played small-college hockey rivalry in the world will be renewed Friday in Brunswick and Saturday in Waterville, when the Bowdoin Polar Bears and the Colby Mules clash for the 199th and 200 th times.

It’s a rivalry that stretches back to 1922, when the Mules beat the Polar Bears by 2-1 in the inaugural game. It goes back so far that the first 37 years’ worth of games was played at outdoor rinks, and it gets so heated that the Bowdoin dining halls have had to restrict what they serve on Colby-Bowdoin days so that it doesn’t end up on the ice. Fish, for instance.

“This is like a little Beanpot,” said Terry Meagher, in his 29th year as head coach for Bowdoin, which holds a 103-87-8 edge going into Friday’s contest at the Polar Bears’ Watson Arena.

“It’s got tradition, passion, fine play and intelligent students looking to howl a bit at the end of the semester,” Meagher said, citing the creatively profane chants that emanate from both school’s cheering sections. “There’s an intense love of hockey in the state of Maine, and this is part of it.”

Both colleges, with 1,800 students each, are academically selective and venerable; Colby is celebrating its bicentennial this year. They stand just 51 miles apart, and both Watson Arena and Colby’s Alfond Rink will be full this weekend, the highlight of the season for the venerable men’s hockey programs at Bowdoin and Colby.

This weekend Blaise MacDonald, the first-year head coach of Colby, joins Meagher and a string of legendary coaches in the Bowdoin-Colby rivalry. The list includes Jack Kelley (seven years at Colby before coaching B.U.; coaching and managing the New England and Hartford Whalers; and serving as president of the Pittsburgh Penguins in a Hall of Fame career), Sid Watson (24 years at Bowdoin) and Jim Tortorella (16 years at Colby and, yes, brother of the inimitable Rangers Coach John Tortorella).

So far this season Bowdoin is 4-0-1 over all and 1-0-1 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference. The Polar Bears are led by Ollie Koo, a junior forward with 5 goals and 5 assists.

Colby is 1-4 over all and 0-2 in conference play. The Mules’ top scorer is the junior forward Nick Lanza, with 5 goals.

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On to the more vexing questions: why Polar Bears, and why was Colby once known as the White Mules?

One of Bowdoin’s most prominent alumni is the explorer Robert Peary (Class of 1877), credited in 1909 as the first man to reach the North Pole. Four years later, in honor of Peary’s achievement, the college adopted the polar bear as its mascot, and the nickname of its sports teams.

As for Colby, that college’s football team was having a surprisingly strong season in 1923, leading the college newspaper’s editor to suggest that the team was no longer a “dark horse.” He suggested the antithesis as a mascot – a white mule. The nickname stuck when Colby beat Bates the next week, 9-6, thanks to its kicking game.

Friday’s game at Bowdoin, starting at 7 p.m., will be streamed live via video Webcast. Saturday’s game at Colby, also at 7 p.m., will be streamed live as well.