Before I forget, I have an electronic copy of the 2001 Frozen Four ticket
application.  It's in .pdf format, so you'll need Adobe Acrobat reader to
read/print it.  I'll be happy to send it to anyone who's interested.  REPLY
AT THE EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW, NOT THROUGH THE MAILING LIST.  I'm doing this
from work, so I probably won't get around to it till this evening.
 
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Comments on the East:
 
Mark Lewin writes:
 
>>First, let me state for the record that if I never hear "Hail To The
Victors" ever again, it would be fine with me ;-)<<
 
Amen.  No offense, it's catchy, in fact that's the problem.  You end up
humming it for about a week after any Michigan game.
 
>>I wanted to see St. Lawrence win to defend the honor of the ECAC.  I've
seen St. Lawrence play before and have a great deal of respect for their
team this year (especially their defense and their young goaltender Derek
Gustafson).<<
 
Well, they earned their respect.  I'm a HE guy, and I thought that BU got
kind of an easy draw, based largely on what Maine did to Clarkson last year
(Clarkson got the bye, but Maine was clearly the better team).  St. Lawrence
is a very, very good team.  Very courageous display of goaltending by BOTH
goalies.  I was worried that the game would end on a soft goal caused by
shell-shock, fatigue, or dehydration.  It wasn't.  DiPietro made the save,
and the rebound came back to the shooter.  Not a bad or freak goal.  Just
one of those things that happens in hockey.
 
. . .
 
>> Maine tied the game at 1-1 but Michigan came back on a power play to take
a 2-1 lead.  I was really impressed by the discipline of Michigan's special
team units. They scored one short handed goal and really shut down Maine's
power play for a good portion of the game.<<
 
Very, very good special teams.  They did an excellent job of shutting down
shooting angles, and on the power play, Comrie is deadly from behind the
goal line.  I thought Maine penalty that resulted in the secone Michigan
goal was a very dumb penalty (I forgot who it was), because the momentum was
really shifting at that point.  Even allowing for the fatigue, I think that
Maine was a better team overall, but I can see why Michigan has
traditionally been an excellent playoff team.
. . .
 
>>One point to note: Maine Captain Cory Larose was called for butt-ending
with under 5 minutes left in the Michigan game. It was announced as a 5
minute major and a game DQ which means that Larose will have to sit out the
semi-final game. . . . I have no no comment on the butt-ending call as it
happened in a blind spot for me.<<
 
It was quite clear to me (but I have a different view of what got called
than Michael Neal does; Michael, when you say "even on replay" does that
imply that you saw it on TV?).  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.
But even if there were some jostling, it was a stupid, stupid, thing to do
anyway.  It was clear that Maine was going to win.  At that point, you
should never do anything to jeopardize a Frozen Four game.  A whack to the
pads, a glove in the face, or even some trash talk sends the message,
without risking a DQ.
 
Clay
 
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