In Hockey East, the number one seed always gets the choice of games.  This
year Dick Umile had UNH play in the 5PM game and left the BU-BC game to 8PM.
Considering that the second game didn't end until midnight and, as a result,
BU had no legs after the first period in the final, I think Umile made the
right choice.

Greg Ambrose

> From: "Hampton, Nathan E." <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: "Hampton, Nathan E." <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 10:09:28 -0600
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: ECAC Entanglement
>
>> At 05:07 PM 3/18/03 -0500, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>> Why the ECAC would choose to change the order of games (originally set
>>> for #2 vs. #3 in the afternoon, and #1 vs. #4 in the evening) at the
>>> midnight hour without warning prospective attendees of the change is
>>> incomprehensible.
>>> Considering this to be a major snafu, what is going on in Centerville?
>>
> Which is followed by Bill Fenwick saying:
>
>> Rumor has it (and it's probably more than a rumor) that the Big Red's Coach
>> Schafer requested the earlier slot to give his charges more time to rest
>> before the Saturday night game -- the idea being, of course, that the game
>> in question would be for the championship.
>> I have heard of other leagues offering the choice to the top seed of which
>> game they want to play in.
>>
> In the WCHA the timing of who plays in what semifinal game is completely
> different!!!
> IF the Gophers are in a semifinal game, THEN they play their game in the later
> 7:00 pm slot regardless of the rankings of the various teams. BECAUSE of the
> TV contract -- the gophers are the bigger TV audience and since Fox (that is,
> Midwest) Sports will carry the WCHA games, they want to have the gophers in
> prime time. It does not matter what the coach wants.
>
> Nathan Hampton