I'm not doing write-ups for this weekend's games, but I will make some comments.
 
Once again a thoroughly memorable experience watching the games with the Hockey-
L crew.  They continually remind me how little I know about hockey.  One weekend
with these guys teaches me more about strategy/tactics etc. than I have learned
in watching college hockey for some 22 years.  I think the people sitting around        us werednn
us were a little perplexed by the motley collection of hockey affiliations.  We
even had a Lake State fan with us. :-)
 
Attendace
 
Attendance IMO was good--6500 on Friday a little low, 12,400 on Saturday very go
good, although I would have to admit that it was a little difficult finding a
parking lot that was filled with Vermont license plates.  I thought there would b
be a few more Clarkson fans, particularly on Saturday night.  But the Clarkson
band was the best by consensus.
 
Friday Night
Friday's games were the more emotional of four.  Cornell surprised me with how
competitive they were with LSSU, who I figured would crush the Big Red.
Cornell could have won it if Elliot had been anywhere near the zone he was in
at Lake Placid.  Instead he gave up a couple of softies early on, the second
LSSU goal a weak wrap-around that went dirctly through his legs.  Even so
Cornell never let LSSU break out to a lead, evening the score at the end of
each period.  The best goal was Aldridge's out-of-box blast, which underlined
why he is a Hobey Baker candidate and all-CHHA choice.
 
Lake State to me looked sluggish, and certainly didn't play the smash-em-against-t
-the-boards type of hockey I have learned to expect from the Lakers.  CHHA fans
out there may want to comment whether this was symptomatic of the Laker's season
overall, or an anomaly from the 15 hours bus ride from the Upper Peninsula.
Graham looked OK, but not overpowering.  The LSSU offense didn't seem to have
the ability to take quality shots.  They did a good job of controlling the puck,
even in the Cornell zone, but didn't rein the shots on Elliot.  Credit is
probably due to the Cornell defense, who didn't allow LSSU the characteristic
third period breakaways LSSU feasts on.
 
Clarkson/Western Michigan was the overpoering goalie performance you always
expect in the playoffs.  Only it was by the guy you'd expect.  Murphy was in
the zone, in fact, he was probably in the galaxy.  How he didn't get the shut-o-
out remains the mystery of the tournament.  And Western Michigan--can you say
discipline?  The most woeful display of out-of-control play I've seen in the
playoffs.  It seemed as if they had one skater in the penalty box the entire
third period.  And the penalties they took were the dumb kind, hitting after
the whistle, slashes, cross checks--particularly when you are on the short side
of the score.  This team absolutely collapsed in the third period, in contrast
to Clarkson, which weathered WMU's first period assault and turned the tables.
At one point WMU held a 25-12 shot advantage.  By th e middle of the third
Clarkson was ahead 29-27, showing how much the game had turned around.  I'm not
going to pile the criticism on Magliarditi, he wasn't the Chris Terreri type I
anticipated, but it was his team which threw in the cards.
 
As Friday ended, the ECAC had vindicated the selection process, nearly winning
both games, and surprisingly making a few chinks in the vaunted CCHA armor.
 
Saturday
 
LSSU/Vermont was a classic in my book.  All the things that make for a great
playoff game--emotion, noise, superior goaltending, skillful shotmaking, no-fold
defense, and the dramatic moment.  It was a game where you could imagine either
team would win.  Repeatedly I would claim that the game is going according to
the Catamount plan and they would win it, only to be corrected by my the next
seat that the Lakers were going to win it.  I don't think my HE friends could
believe that a team with one line and a goalie could make the phinal phour, but
they were convinced.
 
No point in gushing about Perrin and St. Louis.  Big type play had clutch time--
perhaps the best play of all was Perrins' goaltender imitation in the waning
minutes, note, all stick, no flop.  The second St. Louis goal remains confusin
to me with St. Louis being quoted in the T-U as having knocked it in off the
crossbar.  No one in the section apparently saw it.  Also, the T-U indicated
that the LSSU goal went off a Vermont skate, although I don't remember seeing
any Catamount in front of Thomas.  In fact I thought the goal was a little soft,
but I will withdraw the criticism if it in fact went off a skate.  Give Vermont
credit for not wilting despite the mid-zone picket fence the Lakers threw up.
While the Lakers enjoyed a substantial shot advantage, Vermont was able to
equal the differential in quality shots (the first) and unexpected breakdowns
(the second)  IMO the Lakers lacked the creativity to solve Thomas, and simply
waited for the Catamounts to expire.  Instead the Vermont defense stood up to
the Lakers, despite their size differential.  Chalk up another W in the ECAC
win column.
 
Clarkson/BU
A very mediocre performance by an obviously more talented BU squad.  I kept
waiting to see the BU forwards screaming down the slot at Murphy, but it also
never happened.  Murphy started off slowly, a fatal error against BU, but
stepped up in the third period, and would have been the difference had Clarkson
been able to tie it at the end.  The game turned on a fluky skipping puck which
put Clarkson on the board, which underlined the old adage that hockey is a game
of bounces.  Clarkson was done in by their inadequacy on the face-offs,
particularly down the stretch.  Having a 6-4 advantage in the offensive zone is
no advantage if you don't get the draw.  BU its experience and prowess in the
face-off circle to hold on.  But their performance doesn't bode well for next
weekend, unless they find a way to embue their play with emotion and drive.
Call their performance mechanical--but sufficient.  It won't be against
Michigan or Minnesota.
 
All Star Selection
 
Perrin and St. Louis were no brainers, likewise Aldridge.  O'Sullivan seemed li
like a gift to the #1 seed, although in fairness I had difficulty coming up with
a second defenseman.  For goalie I would have picked Murphy on his Friday
night performance and second half against BU.  Not that I don't think Thomas
was deserving.  I rate him best in the nation with only Daubenspeck close, but
Murphy's performance was so unexpected-probably the best of his career.  But
I'm not going to cry over the picks.
 
The selection process of course garnered a lot of discussion throughout the
weekend.  But in my totally biased and unscientific way of thinking, the result
at least provided evidence the the Committee wasn't the biased loutish group
they were made out to be, but at least in terms of balance, put together a
good group of competitors in Albany.  If you picked up the papers this morning
and said, well, what do you expect, the two seeds won.  But the games were
much more than that, all close except the Clarkson/WMU fold-out, and produced
some great entertainment for the fans.
 
Wish I was going to Cinci.
********************************************************************************
Brian Morris                         RPi Engineers--An Underachieving Team
[log in to unmask]            Go Lowell Riverhawks!
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.