I found myself in the upper deck end zone in the near vicinity
of both the Michigan State (early) and Boston College (late)
bands. Thanks goodness for small favors. After last years regionals, I was afraid that I would be sitting in front of the Michigan band and be bombarded with an entire evening of Hail to the Victors.

First, the venue.  I thought Albany put on a good show hosting out of town fans with their block party in front of the Pepsi
with music and TV coverage of the games inside.  From my point of view, Albany went out of their way to make fans welcome by
providing some low priced transportation available as well as
providing entertainment outside the hockey arena. Albany was in a strange situation of trying to hype an event locally when it was already a sellout. How do you hype people into coming downtown when, theoretically, no tickets were available.

The truth is that there were a lot of tickets available. Walking down Pearl street before game 1, I saw dozens of people trying to sell tickets (at below face value).  Judging from
a significant number of empty seats, not all were successful at selling extras.

We left downtown to get dinner but upon our return at 6:30, I ran into a friend who had come downtown looking for a single ticket to game 2 and purchased a lower bowl ticket for $5
(face value $25).  One of my other friends (whose son is a BC
graduate) purchased two tickets (not together) for the finals
on Saturday for $30 a piece (face value $35 apiece).  Now that BC is in the finals, that may change as some Boston folk may choose to drive the 2.5 hours from Boston to watch the game
and possibly participate in a celebration.  On the other hand, I heard a lot of Michigan folks (both UM and MSU) saying they were driving home.  So it will be interesting to see how crowded
the arena is on Saturday and how ticket availablity will be on the street.

My viewpoint of Albany's effort to make FanFest and "event" is based on my ability to park nearby (I have a parking permit for the Empire State Plaza) as well as being able to hop in my car and drive home when there are no games to attend.  I look forward to hearing from visitors as to their reaction of this Frozen Four compared to others in prior years.

Now, the games:  I was very very disappointed in the early game. I was looking forward to seeing Michigan State, ranked
number 1 for most of the season. In my opinion, they were dominated from start to finish by North Dakota.  This is not
to detract from the Sioux. To use an overused roundball term, the Sioux beat the Spartans in the transition game. MSU would shoot the puck into the corner and send one man in deep. The Sioux would dig the puck out of the corner and MSU would set up their nationally ranked defense. By the time the defense was set up, North Dakota already had 3 players breaking across the red line with the puck.  They simply outskated and outhustled
the Spartans all game long. Michigan State was just plain flat all afternoon.  I know every team has a bad game, but you don't expect to see a team to come out flat in a national semi-final.
I was very impressed by North Dakota's  speed and puck handling ability.

In the second game, it was a case of speed (BC) vs. brawn (Michigan). Speed won  out as BC got out to an early lead.  We were sitting in a predominantly BC section and people started talking as if the game was over.  I have seen and read about UM and Red Berenson teams and I pretty much knew that no team of Red's was going to turn over and die.  First of all, there was a lot of CCHA style checking (vicious hits; most up high) and the referees were not calling those hits as penalties. This eventually frustrated the Eagles a bit and must have taken a physical toll as well.  Secondly, having seen Red's teams in the past, I knew that UM would recognize that their style of play in the first period was not working and change their game plan in the second. And they did.  They backed off the physical game slightly and turned up the speed and concentrated on crisp passes and puck control that eventually set BC back on their heals.  From the early second period right up until the empty net goal, this was anybody's game.

I'm looking forward to the finals as an offensive explosion
from both teams.  Both teams seemed to run and gun on Thursday and this could make for a real barn burner on Saturday.
I think BC probably has the edge in speed, but North Dakota
has the edge in checking ability and offensive discipline.

Although BC is statistically the favorite, locally they are the underdog because they haven't won the championship in over 50 years and UND is reigning champ.  BC will be the local favorite
(and mine too), but looking at my exposure to both teams
(which is the semi-finals), I think the Fighting Sioux have a real good shot at repeating as champions.