Some comments and observations on our trip to Grand Rapids last week.
 
1.  I thoroughly enjoyed all four games, and I very much enjoyed mixing
with the western fans, who on the whole I found to be friendly and
knowledgeable.  I'll admit that I had some trepidation of being deluged by
legions of no neck Big 10 frat boys, but most of the people we talked to
were 30- / 40-something parents just there to have a good time and see
good hockey.  The Minnesota fans in particular impressed me by their
demeanor and spirit.  I was a little disappointed that North Dakota didn't
bring much of a following, and utterly mistified at the lack of band and
fans from Miami, but as this allowed the Cornell fans to dominate the
building during our games, I got over it.  :-)
 
2.  We had one morning to walk around the city of Grand Rapids and my
impression is that it might be a very nice midwestern town, especially
pleasant in the summer.  Any place that takes Gerald Ford seriously enough
to have an impressive-looking museum for him is, well, quaint -- my only
regret is that we didn't have time to go inside, because I'm dying to know
if there's a Chevy Chase exhibit.
 
3.  Speaking of impressive-looking, Van Andel is one of the prettiest new
buildings from the outside, being a departure from the usual cement
monstrosities that have gone up lately in Worcester, Albany, etc.  Inside
it's okay, with a lot of wasted space and poor lighting in the upper
sections, but I talked with a number of local fans who watch the Griffins,
and they're quite happy with and proud of the building.  The seating, even
in the nose bleeds, was not bad at all.
 
4.  The Cornell-Miami game was the best of the weekend, since it was the
only one which remained close throughout and in which both teams dressed
their defensemen.  I think we got the drop on Miami a bit, and
there's really no excuse for that since Cornell could have easily defeated
the Redskins in a close contest back in December.  The star of the game
and the most "valuable" (in the sense of "indispensable") player of the
tournament was Cornell goaltender Jason Elliott.  This was in sharpest
contrast to last year's game against Lake State, when Jason sleepwalked
through the first 15 minutes of the game and gave up a couple soft goals.
This time, the rest of the team came out tentative and Jason calmly carried
them through most of the first period.  Tony Bergin had perhaps the finest
game of his career (just a shade better than his masterful handling of RPI
in the ECAC SF a week before), and in general Cornell outhustled and
outworked the Redskins, and it paid off.  The last ten minutes of the final
period rank among the most nerve-wracking lead-holding minutes in my
memory, and once again it was Jason coming to the rescue several times.
Senior captain Matt Cooney returned from serious medical trouble to play on
the weekend, and though he was not his usual physical presence his
game-icing empty netter was the weekend's sweetest memory -- a great way
for Matt to go out.
 
5.  We hung out with the Minnesota fans during the Gophers game with
Michigan State and enjoyed their victory.  Evidentally the band did too --
heard reports that Woog actually called up to the band at the hotel late
Saturday night and asked them if they wouldn't mind being quieter, the team
was trying to sleep!  :-)  I was impressed with the speed and skill of the
Minnesota forwards, though I'll admit that watching western hockey teams
play defense eerily reminds me of watching a young Brett Hull back-check.
MSU did not have a good game, much to the chagrin of their fans (I actually
heard a couple boos, which I thought was ridiculous -- ferchrissakes, this
team made the NCAAs!).  The action was clearly one-sided, which made
Michigan's obliteration of the Gophers that much more impressive -- kind of
like those pictures of the comparative sizes of stars in the old Zinn star
guides, where after a series of head-to-head comparisons you wind up with
Rigel, whose surface would extend all the way past Jupiter's orbit...
 
6.  After the game, we were so beat we just collapsed at our hotel.  You
ever drive 1,000 miles and then sit in a jacuzzi while basking in your
team's first NCAA series triumph in 25 years?  It's... nice.
 
7.  Sunday we walked along the river, checked out the Amway Grand, and idly
wondered whether the wind in Michigan ever drops below 25 MPH.  It had
snowed during the night but was one of those crisply sunny, intoxicating
mornings when anything seems possible -- eternal love, a balanced budget,
advancing to Milwaukee...  then reality, as it so infrequently does,
intruded.  The North Dakota game felt very much like holding on to a 75th
floor ledge with an anvil tied to one's ankle, and we weren't particularly
surprised or even all that disappointed when the Sioux (I didn't hear a
single "Fighting Snot" cheer) put together a couple nice combinations and
missed on scores of others in the first ten minutes.  We *were* surprised
when the Big Red fought back with a late first period goal -- we felt at
the break that we had escaped just one goal behind despite looking
tentative and one step behind. How much heart did the team have left, and
would it be enough?  The second period demonstrated that the answers to
these questions were, respectively, "plenty" and "no".  After cutting the
ND lead in half again, Cornell put together several nice rushes and Kyle
Knopp's breakaway chance, but never could net the equalizer.  In the third
period the tank finally reached empty, and not just where the little yellow
light goes on but you know you can still drive through an entire county if
you have to, but "that was the last drop, get out and push" empty, and when
the Big Red were finally defenseless the Sioux were on them faster than my
14.5 lb cat on a Salmon Pounce (TM).
 
8.  When the Gopher *cheerleaders* looked tired at the beginning of the
final game, we knew it was going to be a short night.  Still, the
Wolverines first 21 minutes were impressive.  Botterill and Morrison are
clearly fantastic performers, and I'm sorry I only got to see them for one
night.  I'm *especially* sorry I didn't get to see them shut down by
Cornell back in January's 3-3 tie in Ann Arbor.  But anyway, they are the
real deal, and I'm as shocked as everybody else (except Jack :-) that they
won't be hoisting trophy number 2 in this afternoon's "appetizer"...
 
9.  Generally speaking, we had a blast, met some very friendly people, get
to say we had lunch with Dick Bertrand, and saw a couple gutty performances
by a team with heart and verve.  When the regionals were introduced I
didn't like the idea, and then going to just the Easterns I sort of
resented that when Cornell was seeded west I would not get to see them.
Happily, having made the trip once and realized that it isn't impossible
and even makes a fun vacation (in our case we mixed in a trip to a long
unseen friend in Chicago), I now really enjoy these get togethers.  It was
especially heartening to me that *so many* Ithacans made the trip out
there.  We met all sorts of people from all over the country, and we met
many right-coasters who drove 15 +/- hours.
 
10.  Three general crowd reactions to the Cornell fans.  The first was that
the Cornell band played the national anthem on both days, and afterwards
our section *sang* the Canadian anthem (a Lynah tradition).  On both
occasions, we were greeted with a rousing ovation at the end of "Oh
Canada", even from the Gopher fans who from all the bitching people do on
this list we might have expected to have been affronted.  The second was
that people asked us all weekend "where is Cornell?"  I gotta admit I was a
little surprised until I realized that until the weekend I had no clue what
city Miami or North Dakota are in (quick -- do *you* know?).  Final
reaction: we talked with groups of fans from Michigan, MSU, and Minnesota
over the course of the weekend, and everyone was very positive and
complimentary, if maybe a bit perplexed that so many fans had made the long
drive.  Generally, I think we made a pretty good impression, and the team
drew praise from people in each of these groups for their tenacity and
heart.  I think most westerners didn't know much about the Cornell team and
expected Miami to put them away easily, but we got nothing but smiles from
the other bracket's fans, and that helped us have a good time.
 
Happy, tired, and finally back at home,
 
Greg R. Berge
Cornell University, '86
1995-96 Ivy League Champions
1995-96 ECAC Champions
1996-97 Ivy League Champions
1996-97 ECAC Champions
 
Let's Go Red!
 
 
11.  Answer: Oxford, OH and Grand Forks, ND.
 
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