FROM THE MINNESOTA DAILY SPECIAL SATURDAY EDITION:
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EAST POWERS PAST WEST First win since '87 puts them in final.
The East, which hadn't won a hockey game in the Olympic Festival since
1987, picked an inoportune time to win Friday night, pounding the West 6-2. In
the process, they knocked the South from the gold medal game and inserted
themselves.
Led by former Anoka (Mn) star Mike Vukonich, the East dominated from
start to finish, outshooting the west 49-24 and picking up 30 shots in the
first 30 minutes of play.
Because of tie-breaking rules, the East had to beat the West by three or more
goals to advance to the gold medal game tonight, but the odds seemed to be
in the West's favor. So much so, in fact, that after thursday night's press
conference, North coach Shawn Walsh told South coach Brad Buetow, "I'll see you
Saturday."
The win by the East (1-1-1) moves them into tonight's gold medal game
against the favored North (3-0). The West (0-3)will take on the South (1-1-1)
in the bronze medal game beginning at 1:00 PM (CST).
Vukonich, who will be a senior at Harvard this fall, scored twice and
added an assist to lead coach Joe Marsh's team. His efforts included a flashy
shorthanded breakaway goal that put the East up for good at 3-2 in the first
period. The West, comprised of players aged 19 and under, clearly were out-
played throughout and seemed to grow frustrated as the game went on. The East
poured it on from the start, pounding Denver University goalie Bryan Schoen
with 20 shots in the first period. Schoen made the save of the tournament less
than two minutes into the game when Cory Laylin fired point blank from the
slot and Schoen gloved the puck.
But the young West defensemen bent and finally broke when Mark Karpen
flipped a backhander past Schoen for a 1-0 lead. The end was not far away.
The West, which has scored only seven goals in three tournament games, tied the
game on Wisconsin freshman Dan Plante's goal minutes later. Plante, not
recognized as a top scorer, netted both West goals giving him three for the
tournament.
West caoch Mike Eaves, his team trailing 3-2, elected to insert Gopher
goaltender Tom Newman into the game at the beginning of the second period, but
Newman couldn't hold off the East's constant attacks.
PERSONAL NOTE: this article does not tell the whole story why Schoen was
replaced with Newman. Towards the end of the first period there was a sort
of confrontation in the crease in front of Schoen. A West player pushed an
East player on top of (or into) Schoen. Schoen became very upset and wanted a
penalty or something because of the man-in-the-crease. He went so far as to
skate after the player yelling so loud that we could hear him in row 14!!!
The Ref listened but was having no nonsense, so play resumed. At the end of
the period, Schoen again approached the Ref to protest and was given a 10
minute misconduct penalty. In my opinion Schoen was benched by the coach for
being very unsporstmanlike. Even though he was not playing, another player sat
in the box for the penalty. Which seemed really ridiculous, because it put
the West a player short when it didn't need to. Anyway, I have a question....
Shouldn't the goalie have sat in the box himself??? I know they usually don't,
but for a misconduct penalty, it would seem appropriate to me.
I'll be at the gold medal game tonight so look for a report on Monday.
Carol W. U of M.
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