The Maine Hockey Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>And I agree with those who have
>written here that we deserve better competition in this tournament.

What no one has mentioned but I read in the BDN was a quote from Whitehead which was that they didn't know until "the last minute" that the Maverick Stampede was going to be an exempt tourney allowing Maine to schedule two more games.  Due to that
fact it was able to talk Scared Heart and Holy Cross to come up here to play one of their league games and then the winner to play Maine and they added Dartmouth late as well.

So that's one MAJOR reason it seems that this tourney didn't have more "high quality" opponents because all the teams were "last minute" attendants.

Does this address the tournament field over the last few years? no but does it explain this year's situation.  Yes.

Also mentioned in that article is that Maine likes to incorperate its exhibition game into the tourney and other teams don't like to take the chance of coming to Maine and then playing an exhibition team.

Other thoughts (in addition to Nonni's) about what may be driving the team selection for this tourney.

-Jake