I was fortunate enough to be able to watch both Hockey East semifinal games
on Fox Sports last night.

What a great 7 hours of hockey that was!!  Hockey East has become so deep
and such a great, competitive conference and that was on display last night.
I have watched plenty of sports, but few events have been as entertaining as
BOTH games were last night.  It was a terrific time, despite the fact that
my team (Maine) was not there!!

#1 UNH vs. #6 UMass

Hard to know what to expect from this game.  UMass had just came off a
stunning two-game upset of my beloved Black Bears and as an extremely young
team would they respond to the challenge or would UNH's experience the
FleetCenter environment overwhelm them?

After a pretty even first part of the period, UNH got on the board 1-0 and
then not long after on a good individual play by Josh Prudden, who just
turned and fired the puck on net, UNH was up 2-0 and they were flying.

UMass was able to survive and get to the dressing room, but it did not
appear that UMass was going to be able to make a game of this.  But
(remember this) UMass would not die.  By the 12:40 mark of the second period
Stephen Warner and Greg Mauldin had scored to bring UMass back to tie the
game at 2-2 setting up as UNH coach Dick Umile called it, "a 20-minute
hockey game".

UNH appeared ready to bury UMass early in the third as Tyler Scott and Steve
Saviano scored at 3:17 and 6:43 respectively to establish a 4-2 lead.  At
that point I felt the game was over.  No way UMass can come back, right?

But once again UMass did not die, and by scoring goals 10 seconds apart the
Minutemen again tied it at 4-4, before Prestin Calandar got the game winner
for UNH with just 2:29 to go.

The best team clearly won this game, but UMass deserves a ton of credit for
showing a lot more maturity and poise than their age and their program's
experience dictates.  UMass returns practically all of their team, and will
be a dangerous team next year.  Hockey East just gets deeper and deeper.

#2 BC vs. #5 BU

Well, after a great UNH/UMass game it seemed hard to believe that the night
cap would be better, but I should have known better.

In a two-overtime thriller BU got the 6-5 win over BC in a see-saw game that
saw several lead changes and much emotion.

BC goaltender Matti Kaltiainen looked pretty weak early, allowing a Brian
Collins goal just 43 seconds in, but then looking shaky on a couple early
saves, but would get better as the game went on.  The teams ended a fairly
even first with a 1-1 score, BC might have had a slight edge in play.

The second period was absolutely wild as 5 goals were scored in the period.
BC took a 2-1 lead, then BU would go up 3-2 and finally BU ended the period
up 4-3.  There were a lot of breakdowns defensively as the game clearly
opened up.  I almost wrote that there wasn't much defense played, but that
wasn't really accurate because without some good plays on both ends more
goals could have been scored.

In the third, Tony Voce took over for BC.  The talented forward scored twice
by the 11:50 mark to erase BU's lead and give the Eagles a 5-4 advantage.
But the real talk of the period was BU's tying goal by Justin Maiser at
16:38.  On the play Maiser knocked down a puck with his stick before
sweeping the puck into the goal.  The play was reviewed to see if perhaps it
had been a high stick.  The replay was very difficult to judge.  (For those
of you who love Fox Sports New England, the announcers openly admitted they
had no idea what the tollerance is for "high stick" in college hockey, so
they weren't able to offer much.  It was emabarassing I thought for them to
be in this position where they couldn't help the viewer -- me -- figure out
whether the stick as too high or not.)

The referee ended up saying (through a mike we heard the explaination) that
the replay was not conclusive so the call on the ice which was a goal was to
stand.  The play was clearly borderline, but I can't say with certainty that
a wrong or right call was made.

In the first overtime, BC had all the chances and BU goalie Sean Fields
really was the difference, he was very good.  Tony Voce may have had the
best chance as he was left all alone for some reason in the slot and took a
pass from Stephen Gionta from behind the net, but Fields got the shot with a
blocker.  I don't think Voce put it exactly where he wanted it.  BC also hit
at least one post in the first overtime.

But as often happens in these cases when one team dominates overtime and the
other team hangs around sometimes they are able to convert.  In the second
overtime, in the 85th minute of the game, Brian McConnell got free behind
the goal line extended and fed a pass to Maiser who was in point blank
range.  Maiser just unloaded an absolute bomb to score and win the game for
BU.  Kaltiainen really had no chance as Maiser was pretty much all alone and
maybe 10 feet away.. just no reaction time to his bomb.

BU will meet UNH in the championship game tonight.  One question will be how
are BU's legs?  Certainly UNH has an advantage I think in both talent and
because of the fatigue question.  But, BU as of late is a team that just
keeps grinding and if they stay out of the box it could be another classic.

Editorial comment:

After the quality of games last night, Hockey East should by NO MEANS
TOLLERATE having their championship game taped delayed after this year.  The
quality of hockey and desire put forth last night deserves to be showcased
and if Fox Sports New England won't do it, find a station that will.  It is
incredibly disappointing that Hockey East fans have had to endure this,
again, this season.

---
Deron Treadwell - [log in to unmask]
http://www.blackbears.net