College hockey's last official on ice event of the season just ended
with the Blue Squad (ECAC, et al) defeating the White Squad (Hockey
East, et al) 11-9 in the Eastern All Star Game at Durham, NH.  It was
3-2 before 6 minutes were gone, then it settled down until the second
half (two 25 minute halves were played).  There was defense, but it
wasn't the bone-jarring checking kind we tend to expect in the regular
season.  The closest analogy I can think of is it was kind of like the
women's game at its best, but faster.  It was still better than the NHL
All Stars.
 
Personal highlights:
- White Squad MVP Brad Purdie from Maine, 2 goals, 2 assists.  Not bad
  for someone advertised as not playing!  I may be a little biased, but
  he was definitely one of the more enthusiastic ones out there.
- Blue Squad MVP Chris Maybury from RIT, hat trick (and assist(s)?).
- Hearing Christian Sbrocca sing the Canadian (bilingual) and American
  national anthems...and doing a wonderful job of it.
- Watching the 4-out-of-5-Lowell-players line (and defense).  You could
  see how they got as far as they did.  They were fun to watch.
- Seeing Joe Marsh pull goalie James Konte with 1.7 sec left in the
  first half and a faceoff in the White zone.  No they didn't score,
  but it's good to see a little flair!
- No penalties!
- No ice problems! (Hard to believe it's been a week already since
  the final.)
 
Personal lowlights:
- J.P. McKersie giving up an awful lot of softies.  Not that the defense
  was what it could have been in this game (when is it ever in an All
  Star game), but I had to groan at a few of them.  He has to have had
  better nights than this.
- Middlin' attendance.  Didn't hear a count, but there were lots of
  seats left.  Oh well, hopefully that won't kill this series too.
- Not getting to see these guys again.
 
All in all an excellent game.
 
Dave Reusch
UMaine '86, UNH 'D95G
 
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