Well, now that's it all over and the Lake Superior State University
Lakers reign supreme--congratulations Lakers!! U.P. Power!!  Yeah!--
here's MY observations on the way things shook out.
 
The National Scene
 
There were at least seven teams in Division I, any one of whom, on a
given night, could beat any other   (alphabetical order to preserve
the notion I'm suggesting):  Lake Superior State, Maine, Michigan,
Michigan State, Minnesota, Northern Michigan and Wisconsin.  The way
Minnesota finished the season--i.e. its last four weekends--may
weaken the case for the Golden Gophers a bit, but (perhaps due to my
WCHA familiarity and maybe a bit of a tilt) I think they deserve
inclusion.  Maybe Boston U. deserves to be an eighth member of this
group, but I don't have enough information at hand to say.  The various
playoff results reflect this suggestion, I believe--again, with the
exception of Minnesota.
 
The WCHA
 
I strongly disagree with list member who suggested in the last digest
of HOCKEY-D that "Minnesota got fat in a weak league."  I realize this
is based on the observations that (a) the Gophers won the regular
league title by a good margin, and (b) they lost in the first round
of the NC$$ tournament.  However, since regular season third placer
Northern Michigan defeated Minnesota in the WCHA playoffs, and even
more (OK, MUCH more) significantly, regular season second placer
Wisconsin went to the NC$$ championship game, how could anyone think
the Gophers "fattened up" on a bunch of weaklings?  In ONE sense there
IS a BIT of truth, but even here an exaggerated one, to the observation:
the Gophers won the regular season league title by very consistently
doing what (Casey Stengle?) made a truism in baseball:  "To win, break
even with the contenders and beat the hell out of the bums."  The
Gophers were very, very consistent this way.  They dominated (until the
last weekend, when they had the title locked up) the six lowest-finish-
ing teams in the WCHA, and broke even with Wisconsin and Northern
Michigan (actually, I seem to recall that Minnesota won 3 of 4 from
Wisconsin; in any case, they didn't sweep the season series).  What
is exaggerated in this example is the notion that the other six teams
were "bums"--with the exception of Denver U., ALL the WCHA teams gave
the three top finishers real difficulty at one time or another (in the
case of Minnesoata, it was in the final weekend and the first round
of the league playoffs).
 
In addition, a number of folks have forgotten that at the midway point
of the season the WCHA was an incredibly tight three-way race, with
Minnesota in fact in third place.  What happened then was that the
Gophers became even more consistent--in fact went on a long winning
streak (10 games?)--while NMU stumbled badly, losing something like
8 out of 11 in January and February--and Wisconsin continued to play
well but not quite as well as Minnesota.  Northern regained its
winning ways in late February and finished with five straight regular
season wins, then swept four straight games in the WCHA playoffs to
win the playoff title, and took the first round NC$$ game with Clarkson
before being edged in the last two minutes of the game with Michigan.
And, we all know what Wisconsin went on to do in the NC$$.
 
I think trends, steaks, whatever you want to call them mean a lot and
for that reason once badgered Keith Instone to include a "record in
the last ten games" or some such factor in TCHCR (to which he gave some
good reasons for not doing so).  In any event, it looks to me like
Minnesota hit the equivalent of Northern Michigan's January in March--
terrible timing!  While I feel LSSU is a very worthy champion, it's
hard for me to believe that the Gophers would have been blown out
as they were by the Lakers in their first NC$$ game had they been
playing as they did until recently.
 
For Whatever It's Worth
 
A lot of people may be feeling NMU is going to be really hurthing next
year, considering its graduation/pro signing losses.  Scott Beattie,
Dallas Drake, Mark Beaufait, and Tony Szabo, among others, have all
exhausted their eligibility.  Jim Hiller has a year left, but nearly
everyone around here is assuming he will sign with the NHL team which
drafted him soon.  That must be about 150 goals which will be gone
next year.  However, the freshmen and a couple of the sophomores
really came on strong in the second half of the season, particularly
on defense.  Furthermore, Corwin Saurdiff is only a freshman!  Think
about how he is likely to play for the next three years.  And, on
offense, remember how much ice time the Beattie-Hiller-Drake-Szabo-
Beaufait crew got this year.  The other Wildcats all showed they can
score when they get on the ice--Joe Frederick being the most notable
example, of course (with his new SHG team record, maybe we should
ONLY play him as a penalty-killer!).
 
I look (and, of course, hope!) for the 92-93 Wildcats to be a lot
like the 91-92 LSSU Lakers--decent scoring, good defense, great
goal tending, and lots of enthusiasm.  Should be fun!
 
                      ***********************************
                     *      Steve Christopher, NMU       *
                    *  "Go 'Cats!''Goin' for it again in  *
                    *     '93--With a little less "O"     *
                    *          and a lot more "D"!        *
                     *        [log in to unmask]         *
                      ***********************************