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Monday, April 8, 2002
Fans applaud team's effort
By DAVID SHARP, Associated Press
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ORONO - With Shawn Walsh's No. 1 jersey hanging in the window, the bus carrying the University of Maine hockey team returned to a hushed campus early Sunday, hours after a near win turned into a sudden-death loss in the national title game.
"That's the way things go," Black Bears junior forward Martin Kariya said philosophically about the team's 4-3 loss to Minnesota, which scored on a power play to end the game.
How Maine has fared in hockey national championship games: 1993: Maine 5, Lake Superior State 4
1995: Boston University 6, Maine 2
1999: Maine 3, New Hampshire 2, OT
2002: Minnesota 4, Maine 3, OT
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"They're on home ice, they've got 20,000 fans. How many NCAA national championship (contenders) can say they did that?" Kariya said. "That was a huge advantage, but that's the way things go. But to them, they made it, they won it, so good for them."
Earlier, Maine students who cheered themselves hoarse stood in stunned silence as the Golden Gophers put the puck in the net to end the game and unleash a cheerful pandemonium at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Moments later they rebounded with the chant, "Shawn Walsh! Shawn Walsh! Shawn Walsh! Shawn Walsh!"
Maine fans were disappointed that their team didn't win the championship for their beloved coach, who died from cancer the day before practice was to begin last September.
"(Sunday night) was supposed to be Shawn Walsh's night. It was his time to be recognized," said Rory Boland, a junior English major from Dublin, Ireland.
More than 500 fans, many with their faces painted blue and white, beads around their necks and some even wearing blue wigs, gathered in the student union to watch the game 1,600 miles away from the action.
The Black Bears came from behind and appeared to have the game won before Minnesota tied it with less a minute to go in regulation.
Fans gave the team an "A" for effort.
"I don't think we lost because we didn't play hard. Coach Walsh would have been happy with the effort," said Colin Seddon, a junior wildlife ecology major from Smyrna, N.Y.
While Maine wanted to win the championship for Walsh, Minnesota got sweet revenge for Maine knocking them out of last year's NCAA tournament with a 5-4 overtime win in the first round. It was the first time since 1979 that Minnesota won the national championship.
"It was a great game. It was a great season. I just wish it ended differently," said Mike Major of Rotterdam, N.Y., another Maine junior studying wildlife ecology.
Afterward, about 800 students poured outside from the student union and dormitories for a bonfire.
University officials set up the event to avoid a repeat of the rowdiness after Maine's 1999 championship, in which an impromptu bonfire was fueled with park benches, door frames and a snowmobile.
This time, there were no significant incidents as the bonfire burned down and a band played, said Noel March, campus police chief.
Beyond the realm of sports, the game carried political ramifications.
The nation's two independent governors, Angus King of Maine and Jesse Ventura of Minnesota, issued a challenge on Ventura's weekly radio show. The loser had to wear the opposing team's jersey at the capitol.
Also, U.S. Reps. John Baldacci of Maine and Martin Olav Sabo of Minnesota had a wager on the game's outcome.
Baldacci has to provide a Maine lobster dinner because the Black Bears lost. If Minnesota had lost, Sabo would have provided Norwegian specialties like salmon, lutefisk and lefse.
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