* It's been a long time since I felt as devastated at watching a team
lose a game as with Lowell's double OT loss to Minnesota today.  The
Chiefs held Minnesota scoreless for the first 54:27, then didn't allow
a goal for another 35:02.  But their one goal wasn't enough.  Dwayne
Roloson played an incredible game, and he was often the last line of
defense with his teammates skating tired and trying to hold on.  Of
course, with Minnesota dominating the third period and OTs, I can
imagine how they would have felt if they had been on the short end
instead.  It was too bad there had to be a winner.  It wasn't a
classic game like a BU-NMU, but when a game gets to be as long as this
one was, it's still one you enjoy watching.
 
I am not sure, but I think Lowell had their fourth line out when the
GWG was scored.  Lowell had just killed off a bench minor for too many
men (replay was from a poor angle so we couldn't see how close it
was), and I suspect Bruce Crowder wanted to get his penalty killers
some rest before sending them out on their regular shifts.  Not
casting blame, just an observation.
 
Nielsen's winner was a good goal.  He came up ice on a 2x1 and took
the shot from about 15 feet out, beating Roloson high to the glove
side.  Roloson didn't give much, but Nielsen is a sniper (29 goals)
and fired a perfect shot - the only way it seemed the Gophers would
beat Rollie tonight.
 
The Chiefs did themselves and their fans proud.  Let's hope they get
another crack at it sometime soon.
 
* Unofficially, I believe the winner came at 9:29 of the second OT.
The game is the 7th longest DivI game ever - not 6th as was announced
on tv.  I suspect the list they were working from did not include the
BC-UNH game in the HE quarterfinals which was longer.
 
* There's no way the Knick had only a couple thousand for the first
game Saturday night.  The announced attendance of 9,675 sounds about
right, since BU fans made up most of the crowd.  Many of them had to
leave after BU won since the BU fan busses were apparently leaving
right away.
 
* The Albany Times Union's coverage left something to be desired.
Harvard's 7-1 win over UNH made the front page of the Sunday sports
section, but Bob Croce started out his article as follows:
 
"Even though RPI's hockey team found itself uninvited to the big Knick
house party Saturday night, in a way one of its graduates stood as a
token representative."
 
He went on to spend 9 paragraphs talking about the only person from
either Harvard or UNH who had a connection to RPI, Harvard coach Ronn
Tomassoni - an RPI grad.  It was not until the 10th paragraph until we
got even a mention of any of the players in the game.
 
* The ATU also had the following in its "Notebook":
 
"Although it really didn't do them much good, considering the final
score, Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer said his players derived some
motivation from some comments two BU players made to a Wisconsin
newspaper.
 
"The Terriers insisted that they would have good success against the
Badgers, because Wisconsin played undisciplined hockey.
 
"'I didn't think our opponent respected us as a team after reading
some of the comments in the paper today,' Sauer said.  'I hope they
respect us now.  In the first period, I thought we played them nose to
nose.'"  (end)
 
Well, while it wasn't a good idea for the BU players to make
statements like that to the press, it was ironic that what they said
turned out to be true Saturday night.  When the Badgers fell behind,
they started taking a number of foolish, almost goon-like penalties
that were probably designed to draw a reaction from BU.  But to my
surprise and to BU's credit, BU uncharacteristically did not respond
in kind and usually skated away.  From what I heard after the game, it
sounded like BU expected this and their game plan was to stay out of
the scraps.  A notable is that BU captain Doug Friedman did not take a
single penalty while assisting on one goal, and he is a player whose
leadership I had questioned because of his tendency to be involved in
altercations.  Against Wisconsin, he was most certainly a leader of
the best kind, and his teammates followed.
 
The BU team defense was stifling.  BU allowed Wisconsin, a team with
two 60-point scorers, only 14 shots in the entire game - 7 over the
final two periods.
 
* I never did see the Northeastern goal that was disallowed against
LSSU, but it sounded as though it was obviously in from all accounts
I've heard.  If so, that is too bad.  The Huskies had to have gained
some respect after some people asked why they even received a bid.
Consider how many times a team has scored 5 (or in this case, 6) goals
on Lacher this season.
 
* I considered justice to have been served after the two "home" teams,
MSU and RPI, each lost their opening games.  I certainly don't have
anything against either team and it isn't their fault that they ended
up at home while other teams had to travel.  But if there is a change
that needs to be made in bracketing for next season, it is to stop
declaring that the "home" teams get to play at home as long as they
just make the tourney.
 
How much of an effect did it really have on attendance?  At the Knick,
there certainly was a strong RPI contingent Friday night, no doubt
about that.  But Saturday, there were still almost 10,000 and that was
without most of the RPI fans who were there Friday.  Meanwhile, while
I don't know about the LSSU-Michigan crowd Sunday, there seemed to be
perhaps 3000 for Lowell-Minnesota.  That's still not a bad turnout,
but overall, I think last year's regionals drew more or weren't off by
much in terms of total attendance.  About the only way it could have
been significantly improved would have been to overturn the victories by
UNH and Lowell so the host teams could play another game. :-)
 
* RPI: back at the beginning of the season we talked about how RPI
needed to find some scoring if its dreams for a national title were
going to come true.  The Engineers sure did pick things up as they
were one of the highest scoring teams in the nation during the season.
But it was ironic that when it came down to it, in the two biggest
games of the year, RPI wasn't able to score a goal.  They had their
chances both nights, but could not finish.  Neil Little played a great
game in net, and without him the score could have been 5 or 6-0.
 
* Harvard: a team that seems to be on a mission.  UNH had 22 shots,
but Tracy was not tested.  McCann was outstanding, both on D and
playing up front as a third pointman on the potent power play, and
maybe in St Paul he'll finally get some real national recognition.
Martins and Farrell seemed light years ahead of UNH in terms of speed
and playmaking ability - actually, so did most of Harvard.
 
But somehow UNH hung in there until Harvard extended its lead to 2 at
6:44 of the third.  I think that goal broke the back of UNH, who was
playing for that elusive tying goal (and after that, who knows what
could have happened).  Instead, Harvard's goal opened the floodgates
(3 goals in 3:07) and Cavicchi, who had played well, was pulled for
Heinke with the game out of reach.
 
* The final four contingent of BU, Minnesota, Harvard, and LSSU sets
up all sorts of interesting matchups.  BU has a tough feat ahead in
attempting to beat Minnesota at home (effectively).  Harvard-LSSU is a
rematch of the 1989 NC$$ quarterfinals - the year in which Harvard won
it all.  Minnesota fans would love to gain revenge on Harvard in the
building where the Crimson spoiled their party.  BU would love revenge
on either LSSU (for last season's semifinal loss in Milwaukee) or
Harvard (for the semifinal Beanpot loss this February), especially
since Harvard posted that win when BU was missing two key defensemen.
And Minnesota would like another shot at an LSSU team that took two
overtimes to beat them in the championship of the Mariucci Classic in
January.
 
I didn't think BU would get by Wisconsin, but now that they have, I
think they can beat Minnesota despite the home crowd advantage the
Gophers will enjoy.  BU has the better offense and defense, and
Minnesota will need its best goaltending performance of the season
(any word on who will start? I'd think Callinan).  BU will need to
play disciplined as it did against Wisconsin.  Minnesota will need to
generate offense earlier in the game and cash in on what are likely to
be the few chances they'll get.  If BU gets ahead by a couple, it will
be next to impossible to come back.
 
Harvard may be the most well-rounded team of the four.  The Crimson
are certainly the fastest of the four, but more importantly, they have
shown an ability to create plays and control the puck while outskating
the opponent.  Harvard's power play is superb, and LSSU will have to
keep it off the ice as much as possible.
 
In all, we're looking forward to an exciting three games.  If
anything, I am most disappointed that Lowell and Michigan are not
there, but the matchups are intriguing enough that I know I'll still
enjoy it.  Best of luck to everyone participating and making the trip.
---                                                                 ---
Mike Machnik                                          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMM* 11/13/93