Hi all -
 
  I know this is somewhat "tardy," but hey - it's a long drive back to
Maryland from Albany, and there's other "work" that takes precedence (at
least my boss thinks so :-)  In any case, I'll offer up a few general
comments on the Eastern Regionals to follow, but first:
 
On Mon, 27 Mar 2000, Michael Neal wrote (re: Maine-Michigan):
> It was an ugly game.  Barrett Heisten should have been tossed for spear-
> ing in the first.  Brendan Walsh jumped Mike Comrie well after the horn
> to end the first.  Both Jeff Jillson and Jed Ortmeyer got away with dan-
> gerous shots at someone's knee.
 
  I'd have to agree that this was one of the more brutal NC$$ Tournament
games I've watched in the past several years.  Whether both squads just
had excess pent-up energy to work off from having stood around and waited
... and waited .... and waited for the SLU-BU game to end, or perhaps it's
just a natural by-product of the several hard-fought Maine-Michigan wars
these two teams have engaged in over the years (1993, ot; 1995, 3ot); in
any case, to call this game "chippy" would qualify as the understatment of
the year.  But I saw that Walsh/Comrie tete-a-tete to end the 1st period a
little differently.  There's little doubt that one of Brendan "don't call
me Son of Satan" Walsh's primary responsibilities to this Maine team is to
"irritate" opposing star players; he was glued to Comrie whenever S. Walsh
could get the match-ups he wanted, and they were battling each other all
through the 1st period .... As I saw the play in question, both Comrie and
Walsh were skating through center ice just as the horn sounded, and Walsh
reached up with his glove to "tousle" Comrie's helmet, not unlike players
will do to their own team-mates after a good play.  Comrie then glanced
over his shoulder to see who was there, saw that it was a Maine player,
and immediately speared his stick up under Walsh's chin.  Did Walsh pro-
voke this bit of retaliatory stick-work ??  Absolutely .... Did Walsh
"jump" Comrie as is alledged ??  Well, that's a stretch in my book, but
there's little doubt that this was an escalating confrontation that was
just waiting for the proper match to light the fuse ....
 
  But as much/often as Maine focused on Comrie - Michigan's HB Finalist -
so too did Michigan on Andy McDonald - Colgate's own HB Finalist - in
their earlier game with the Red Raiders.  One play in particular sticks
with me .... As McDonald motored with the puck into the Michigan zone
along the right boards, a Michigan D-man laid on as vicious a slash as
I've ever seen, a wicked two-handed chop across McDonald's glove/forearms
that *sounded* nasty, and made me cringe just watching it.  It had the
desired effect, however, and as the puck skittered away both players got
rotated around so that McDonald now had the inside position, and he drove
the Michigan guy hard into the boards.  They both dropped to the ice in a
heap, and the whistle sounded; "here comes a deserved slashing penalty to
Michigan," thinks I .... Not on your life; it's a penalty on *McDonald*
for "roughing" !!!  Groan .... Michigan was lucky to "win" this game, as
I'm quite sure Colgate's ot "goal" crossed the line before Fitzgerald's
whistle blew, a view I'm told is supported by TV replays.  But my under-
standing is that these calls are not subject to review, much as safe/out
"judgement" calls on close calls along the basepaths cannot be overturned
either.  That's probably best, but of little consolation to Colgate fans.
 
  Quite a bit's already been written about the SLU-BU "classic," but let
me add a few more thoughts .... An in-house "parlor game" that many in my
group of fans like to engage in (in Arenas with a shot clock) is to second
guess the official shot recorder.  Since Pepsi Arena has a shot clock, we
were attuned to the mounting shot totals in this game right from the start,
and it was pretty obvious that "official" shots were being awarded with
generosity in the extreme; if either goalie so much as touched the puck -
irrespective of whether it was actually headed for the net - he got a save.
In one laughable sequence, a SLU player first drove a shot off DiPietro's
pads, then collected his own rebound and passed it to a teammate who rang a
second shot off the post.  The rebound from that shot caromed off a BU D-
man's leg and fell at his feet; when he saw the puck lying there he weakly
pushed it toward DiPietro's outstretched glove so his goalie could cover
up for a face-off.  Net result: three, yes *3* SOG !!!  Saves were awarded
for shots CLEARLY headed over the top of the net, for clearing shots off
the boards that just happened to carom towards (but wouldn't have gone in)
the goal, for deflections off skates that dribbled weakly towards the cage
where DiPietro or Gustafson (yes, it was equal-opportunity gift-giving :-)
could pounce on them.  We in the stands just shook our heads, laughed, and
went along for the ride like everyone else ....
 
  It's too bad that the NC$$ (I'm assuming they're behind this) wouldn't
allow the Pepsi Arena message board to be used to actually convey some
useful *information* instead of endlessly repeating the same dozen lame
trivia questions for hour upon hour :-(  Couldn't the name/numbers of goal
scorers and assists been posted there ??  How about records about to be
broken as the marathon unfolded - even if only between periods ?!?!?  Once
the 1st ot ended with 90 combined SOG, I began to suspect this was close
to a record, so we quickly looked up the previous record-holder in the
program: 106 in the 1995 Maine/Michigan 3ot semi-final.  Our group then
had a grand time counting down the combined shots needed to surpass the
record; just think how energized the whole Arena might have been if more
people knew about it !?!?  Then we counted down the saves needed to sur-
pass Chris Terreri's previous-record 62 (1985: Providence vs. BC) and the
total time needed to surpass (first) the 3 ot Maine-Michigan game and then
the 4 ot Wisconsin-CC WCHA play-off game.  Why does the NC$$ go to such
lengths to purposefully withhold information from fans in the Arenas ??
 
  I'll admit I was pulling for this game to last at least another 5 mins.
and change to become the longest men's ice hockey game EVER !!  As it is
I've personally attended all 3 of the longest NC$$ Tournament games (1984,
1995, 2000), and 5 of the Top 10 all time longest games.  These marathon
games are HELL on the players, but as a fan I love 'em, especially when
the goalies just take over and produce one highlight reel save after
another.  IMHO this game lacked the drama of the 1984 and 1991 Champion-
ship game marathons simply because those games were the CHAMPIONSHIP
games; score just one more goal and you get to hoist the trophy !!  But
you just can't beat the tension and equal parts joy/sadness that comes
with sudden-death play-off hockey; it's one of the best things that our
game has going for it, and beats those maddening, clock-dominated hoop
over-times hands-down ....
 
  And finally, how I wish that more fans of a particular team could be
persuaded to come (or to stay and) root for a team other than their own
:-( I think I could count the number of Colgate fans in the building on
Sunday on one hand; isn't the GAME worth supporting even if your team lost
in heart-breaking fashion the day before ??  Hell, you've aleady paid for
the tickets !!!  I'll forgive the many SLU fans who bailed out for home
after beating BU; it's a long drive over the mountains back to Canton.
The Michigan fans are famous for this; the hundreds selling/giving away
tickets in Milwaukee in 1993 and 1997 just minutes after losing to Maine
and BU respectively in the National semi-finals should be ashamed ....
 
  Enough ranting - onto Providence !!  Hope to see some of my HOCKEY-L
friends at the games and/or the between-games gathering ....
 
  Cheers from Maryland - Jim
 
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