I really can't add too much to the comments already made by Brian,
Jim, Mike, et al, but I'll try to make a few points.
 
* Attendance was good, even though I don't think the 12,000+ on
Saturday were all there at once.  :-)
 
* The UVM fans will follow their team to Austrailia if they had to. Yes,
Lake Placid and Albany are not far from Burlington, but the support
for this team is incredible.
 
* Hockey wasn't the only thing at the Knick on Friday. The box behind
our section let us know exactly what was happening in the
Syracuse-Georgia game by cheers & groans. :-)
 
* Jim mentioned the penalty box camera man. If he had gotten any
closer to the players, he would probably have been violating some
sort of privacy laws.
 
This was a great weekend of hockey. The only thing that will probably
top this will be the Frozen Four in Cincy.
 
Now from a Clarkson fan perspective......
 
Western Michigan didn't show why they were one of the best teams. If
you didn't know about them before you came to the Knick, you'd probably
wonder why they were in the NCAAs at all. They just didn't seem to
show up. Of course, Clarkson didn't deserve rave reviews on Friday,
either. How can your defense give up three point blank shots in the
first 5 minutes of the game? Either they were blinded by WMU's bright
yellow uniforms or they had a lot of trust in Dan Murphy. I think it
took about 5 minutes for Clarkson to settle down and play the hockey
they are used to playing - tough, physical defense. The game seemed to
turn when Murphy made another fantastic save, then turned it out to
a mini-rush towards Magliarditi. JF Houle blasted his shot past the
WMU goalie for the first goal of the game. That seemed to get Clarkson
back into their own game.
 
WMU tried to get themselves back into things in the second period. They
put 19 shots on Murphy, but Dan still played out of his element.
Clarkson continued to lapse defensively, but still seemed to keep
WMU fraustrated. Dave Seitz's power play goal gave Murphy all the
breathing room he'd need. Western then just fell apart. Clarkson's
clutch & grab defense just started to frustrate the Broncos, which
led to dumb penalties, which led to 4 Clarkson goals. Murphy didn't
have to do as much work in the third period, since there were a number
of Clarkson power plays and a LOT of people in the box. A couple
of times, the camera man didn't have any room.  :-)
 
On Saturday, neither team was all that spectacular. BU played well
enough to win for two periods. Clarkson played well enough to win,
but for only one period. Thus, the 3-2 win. BU's 1st & 3rd goals
could both have been very important. The first goal was one that Murphy
should have stopped. Chris Drury took a shot from the left faceoff
circle. The save was an easy one for Murphy, but he let up a
rebound that Drury just poked at as he flew by the net. It just happened
to squeak between Murphy's pads into the net. Kind of a flukey goal,
but a goal is a goal.
 
Midway through the 2nd period, Clarkson's Todd white was part of
a mini-rush that brought the puck into the BU end. The puck was
dumped into the zone and White went after it. He was then pulled down
(IMO) by a BU defenseman (I believe it was Jon Coleman??). The
Clarkson bench screamed for a hokking call, but the zebras weren't
calling anything all night. It probably should have been called, but
it wasn't. Less than 30 seconds later, Mike Sylvia one-timed a
shot past Murphy to make it 3-0. This was a huge goal for BU, as
it let a lot of air out of Clarkson's balloon.
 
The third period was much better for Clarkson. They looked like a
team almost in desperation to get into the game. Realizing they
needed three goals or go back to Potsdam, they put some offensive
pressure on Tom Noble. Not many shots were put on Noble, but the
game turned towards Clarkson's favor. Steve Palmer turned and simply
blasted a shot that surprised Noble and make it 3-1 at 5:11. Just
2:10 later, Dave Seitz pulled the puck out of a corner scramble and
found Todd White sitting at the side of an open net. 3-2. Clarkson
was fortunate enough to entice Jon Coleman into a hooking (?) call
with 1:34 left. They then pulled Murphy for a 6-4 advantage. They
got a couple shots on net, but not much else. BU hung on and Clarkson
goes home.
 
This is the closest they have gotten to the Frozen Four since that
great team of '90-'91. This was also the first year they had won a
tournament game since then.
 
All in all, it was a better year than most had expected. I won't post
any more, but comments are always welcome.
 
Andy
 
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+                                                                     +
+  Andy Weise           Let's Go Tech!                                +
+  SUNY Potsdam '93                     [log in to unmask]       +
+  Union College '95    Let's Go U!                                   +
+                                                                     +
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