Ahh - what a weekend!  Am I ever glad I have a satellite hookup - got to
watch every game start to end.
 
First, the difference in play between large and small ice sheets is very
interesting, especially watching it back to back like that.  I think I
prefer the Olympic size sheet for the style of hockey it engenders.  BC
really impressed me - and Wisconsin may have lost at least partly because of
the big sheet.  On a small rink they may have been able to play a body-check
game which, given the long game with Michigan State the night before for BC,
might have slowed BC down enough for WI to win.  I try not to get too hung
up on results of sporting events - its supposed to be fun, after all - but
have to admit it was very disappointing to see WI lose.  [They were also my
pick to go all the way which pretty much destroys all chances I might have
had in the contest, too].  Its not that the Badgers played poorly so much as
they ran into a hot goalie.  I think Melanson is one of the best in the
country, but he just had an average night in the pipes.  C'est la vie.
 
In that BC-WI game, I (probably the only one in the entire country) have to
question the third goal.  It sure looked to me like the BC player was
backing into the crease and pulled the puck in after himself.  I know there
was a WI defender on his back, but it was the charge by the BC player that
put him there.  Hence, I though it should be no goal.  No one else saw it
that way, though.
 
Clay Satow wrote concerning the butt ending incident in Maine-UMich:
=====================
 Here's what I saw:  The puck was in the
Michigan end.  Michigan had Comrie "cherry picking" at center ice.  Larose
was covering him, and they were well away from the play.  Larose butt-ended
Comrie in the ribs.  Comrie was stunned and went down.  The puck came out of
the Michigan end, to the side of the rink opposite where the incident took
place.  Larose went to the puck, and Comrie got up and went after Larose,
across the ice.  That precipitated the scrum along the boards that I think
Michael is referring to.
 
When the butt end happened, my 16 year old son and I turned to each other
and simultaneously said, incredulously "Did you see what he DID?"  It was
not a really bad butt end (you don't get up from an really bad  one), but a
clear butt end nevertheless.  I didn't see what, if anything, led up to it.
====================
 
Thanks for the clarification.  The announcers on TV had trouble seeing the
butt ending because all they replayed was the scrum on the boards where
nothing much happened.
 
Well, back to the grind stone till the 6th.
 
Tom Rowe                                          [log in to unmask]
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Home of Division 3 National Champion Pointers
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