I was one of the fortunate ones to witness last year's NCAA semifinal
between Maine and Michigan at the Providence Civic Center. I remember
being very excited because I had never seen Michigan play in person
(I've been to a few Maine-BU's and a Maine-Harvard before).  As I
watched, I was impressed with the Wolverines' skating and puck-handling
ability, but I felt that they didn't fully make use of their size
advantage over the smaller, speedy Black Bears.  Although this made for
an entertaining, fast-paced game it might have cost Michigan dearly.
I've always felt that the way to stop small, fast teams like Maine is to
slow them down and wear them out by taking the body (BC has used that
strategy VERY effectively against my Crimson in the last two Beanpots).
        This time around, I felt that the Wolverines were much more
physical, which was key in their victory.  The Black Bears came out guns
blazing (as they always do), but Michigan was able to weather the storm
and slowly take control of the tempo by hitting hard and springboarding
their offense with a tight defense.  By the end of the game it seemed to
me that the Maine players were a bit weary.  All in all, though, it was
a great game -- not as good as last year's semifinal but definitely more
exciting than the Bruins-Capitals matchup that I was peeking at on
another channel from time to time.
 
Tony
Go Crimson!!
(One week and counting to the start of the season!)
 
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