Taken mostly in chronological order except where composition dictates,
or memory fails.
 
Michigan 4 - New Hampshire 0
 
The Marty and Bubba show.  Having watched Michigan last week against
both Princeton and North Dakota, I had decided that the Wolverines look
better against a speed/offense style team rather than one that
emphasizes defense and positioning.  Thus, I wasn't really surprised by
the way this game turned out; UNH struck me as not matching up well.  I
thought that the Wildcats didn't really have an answer for the heavy
hitting Michigan inflicted, and as the game went on, they became tired
and disorganized.
 
Michigan's game plan (and this was true on Saturday as well) basically
assumed that Turco would have his 'A' game with him.  They gave up a lot
of odd-man rushes all weekend, and Marty was almost always up to the
task.  The priorities seemed to be dishing out physical punishment,
establishing offensive flow and preventing second chances.  The
defensemen pushed the offense as much as I've ever seen on one of
Berenson's teams.  While Turco was often required to come up big, it was
almost exclusively from plays developing in front of him rather than
from behind the net, and rarely involved extended sequences, though much
of the credit for this goes to the way he controlled rebounds.
 
New Hampshire controlled much of the game early, though I put this in a
similar category to my comments about OSU-Yale in the regionals;
Michigan was more intent at that point in establishing a physical
presence.  The Wolverines did have a nice looking power play early on,
but they couldn't convert.
 
Two of New Hampshire's four great chances of the game came on a power
play late in the first period.  In one of the few exceptions to the
above, Derek Bekar had the puck behind the net as Tom Nolan broke loose
right in front.   Nolan received the pass right on the doorstep, but
Turco came all the way out to challenege him and blocked the attempt
through the five hole, allwoing no rebound.  Shortly thereafter,
Filipowicz took a cross-ice pass and unloaded a blast from the right
point that Marty blocked with the skate as he came over.  This was a
lightning quick play that almost scored, but the rebound led to the pass
that Berenzweig collected for the short-handed goal.  That was a play
that I'm sure Sean Matile will remember for a long time, because he sent
the rebound to the only place that could hurt him, basically saying,
"You couldn't score on the backhand, would you like to try the
forehand?"  (This is also an example that one of the key's to my writing
is recognizing when someone else gives me a line that's worth stealing;
I just can't remember who at Barkan's party said it.)
 
This sequence sucked the life out of New Hampshire and it was almost a
full period before they got any back.  Meanwhile, in the second period
Michigan scored two goals which were largely attributable to a lack of
effort on defense.  The Wildcats' last gasp came on the two 2-on-1s late
in the second period, where Turco robbed them after great passing.
Interestingly, both of these plays (as well as the skate save against
Filipowicz) saw Turco moving right to left.  I'm left wondering if he
might have been more vulnerable if New Hampshire had made him go the
other way.
 
After this, the third period was pretty much a matter of watching the
clock wind done to an inevitable conclusion.  Don't be deceived by the
fact that UNH had more than half of its shots in the third.  Through the
first two periods, they ran an intricate offense that, due to the
Michigan defense, didn't get many shots, but those they did get were of
high quality.  In the third, the Wildcats looked like a group of very
talented individuals who tried to make the plays on their own rather
than relying on teammates.  Over the course of the game, Mark Mowers
made a number of nice plays and Nolan and Bekar clicked a couple of
times.  Jason Krog made no noise at all.  I wish I'd been paying
attention to who notice who Michigan had stuck on him.
 
And, just to give due credit, I thought Mike Noeth did a fine job
officiating this game.  I don't have any specific comments to make,
which is a positive sign.
 
 
Hockey-L Dinner
 
Many thanks to Karen Ambrose; the dinner was wonderful.  And the Gophers
need to make it back to the Final Four soon, because I'm running out of
excuses for wearing my Michigan jersey.
 
 
Boston College 5 - Ohio State 2
 
The game played was both more and less close than the final score
indicates.  For most of the 60 minutes, BC dominated the action.  They
came out in the first period flying and could easily have scored five or
six times.  Easily, that is, if Jeff Maund hadn't done a fine impression
of a guy who can juggle chainsaws while on a unicycle, twirling two pie
plates and balancing a ball on his nose.  Instead, the Eagles only
scored once, committing the sin of allowing an outmatched opponent to
stay in the game.  This one goal was a beauty, though.  Brian Gionta ate
Maund alive and put the puck in an empty net.
 
The difference, pure and simple, was speed.  The Buckeyes looked like
they were hampered by still being largely composed of players who were
part of those earlier, unimpressive, teams.  That they went as far as
they did is a tribute to hard work and the ruthless discipline with
which John Markell got them to play.  But eventually, the talent gap
caught up with them.  They'd be headed for the right position, but BC
would get there first and make a shambles of the OSU game plan.  BC's
second goal came during the five minute checking from behind penalty.
The teams were 4-4 at the time, but this was clearly a condition that
favored OSU.
 
The major penalty call?  I thought it was weak, though I was at the
other end of the rink.  It seemed pretty clear to me that if it was
actually from behind, Farkas turned to make it so at the last instant.
I also thought it was a pretty fair acting job to make it all look so
spectacular.  It could have been cross-checking; I couldn't see how
Jestadt was carrying his stick.  I wouldn't even have called it
boarding.  And chraging?  See my comments below about Saturday's game.
On the whole, I'd be interested in taking a look at the performing arts
department at BC.  I thought they were amazingly good at making contact
look dramatic.
 
The good news is that they didn't panic and, when Maund kept them alive
for thirty minutes, the rest of the team was still around.  When the
Eagles let up at about the 12:00 mark of the second period, it almost
cost them the game.  The last eight minutes of the period was all
Buckeyes.  They unleashed a ferocious forecheck that produced
opportunities and when BC did get it down the ice, there was someone
wherever they wanted to go.  Dan Cousineau tied up the score and Boston
College was very, very fortunate to survive the period.  With four
seconds to go, a Buckeye shot went of the inside of the corner formed by
the left goalpost and the crossbar.  I don't think I've seen a shot that
came closer to going in since a couple of BU's chances in overtime
against Northern Michigan in 1991.
 
A small fraction of an inch difference, and we might have had a
different outcome.  (BC fans, remember this when you think of the
crossbar in overtime on Saturday.)  I certainly think it would have
given the third period a very different character.  As it was, BC slowly
took over.  OSU had chances to take the lead early in the third, but BC
converted first.  From there, the Buckeyes gradually wore out.  The
fourth goal killed them, and pretty much showed that Maund had cracked
as well.
 
In all, it was a marvellous season for Ohio Stae, and they seemed to
remember that even before they left the ice.  Ryan Root was as enjoyable
to watch in defeat as he was in victory a week ago.  I wish the seniors
well and look forward to watching them next year, if only we'd get
someone up here that would show the CCHA Game of the Week on a regular
basis.
 
 
Friday
 
Slept until noon.  The beds at the Best Western aren't great, but they
are serviceable.
 
While trying to track down the Hobey presentation, we saw the Buckeyes
getting ready to leave for the airport.  I had a couple of enjoyable
conversations with Andre Signoretti and someone who I think was Ryan
Jestadt (it's hard to tell, now that I'm looking at the team photo).
Contrary to my posts last week, Signoretti is 5' 9"; I'm now trying to
figure out why he looks so small on the ice.
 
We went to the Humanitarian Award presentation.  Since that's determined
entirely by off the ice actions, I have no way of evaluating the the
judging process, though those awful uniforms he designed had to count
against Casey Hankinson in the balloting.  The ceremony was nice, and I
got a chance to pass along to Jeff Sauer that my source inside the
Wisconsin athletic department indicated that he really is a nice guy.
 
We watched the Hobey presentation on the monitors outside Faneuil Hall.
I thought charging $5.00 to get in was outrageous, even if it is a
donation, which the signage left me unclear about.  Still, the second
half was a nice presentation; the first half was pretty much a verbatim
repeat of what's been said in previous.  Important for those who're new,
but it had started to rain, so it dragged quite a bit.
 
With many thanks to D B Doucette, the evening was spent in a enjoyable
tour of Boston.  We've been informed that it's not a proper subject of
discussion for the list, but if anyone wants an evaluation of some of
the places to stop by in Boston, I'd be happy to pass it along
privately.
 
 
Saturday morning and afternoon was spent visiting family, so that brings
us to:
 
Michigan 3 - Boston College 2 (ot)
 
Once again, BC came out flying, though they weren't as dominating as
they had been on Thursday.  The Michigan tactic seemed to be force the
BC forwards way to the outside before they could get around the
defensemen.  This was largely successful, meaning that a lot of the
shots came in on Turco from a bad shooting angle.  He did not leave many
rebounds for the other attacker to collect.
 
Red continued his trend of announcing a different lineup every game,
mixing up his lines from the very start.  He put a good group of
checkers out to start the final, obviously trying to neutralize
Reasoner-Gionta-Powers.  I also don't think it was a coincidence that
all of the starters save Turco were US natives; announcing Canadian
starters for OSU seemed to fire up the BC crowd on Thursday.
 
Power plays didn't look very good for either team early in the game.
Michigan had trouble keeping the puck in the zone, while BC couldn't get
it away from the boards.  The Wolverines hardly generated any chances
during the first, leading again to the impression that BC was
dominating.  I don't think this was entirely true, as the Eagles weren't
getting opportunites as consistently good as they had against OSU.  I
was worried when BC scored, as the good Marty probably should have
stopped that shot.  It turned out that wasn't much of concern in the
long run, but it didn't bode well.
 
Dave Huntzicker and Berenzweig carried a huge defensive load.  They
pushed attackers outside and made life very unpleasant for the small BC
forwards in close.  Brian Gionta got pounded at every opportunity.  The
Eagle fans around me were screaming for obstruction penalties when I
thought we had a pretty standard WCHA type game going.  Team biases, of
course, played no role in these judgements.  Regardless, it was very
tough going in front.
 
Again, I thought Mike Schmitt was not terribly good reffing this game.
You probably would have needed one of those ACME rocket sleds Wile E.
Coyote uses to pick up a charging penalty, and the checking from behind
call on Matt Herr was odd.  I don't doubt that it was from behind, but
Schmitt hadn't called anything like this away from the boards all year.
I think Matt's real infraction was yapping about some calls at the
previous whistle.  And for the first five minutes of the third period,
he went from calling nothing to calling everything, then went back to
his original style.
 
The basic flow of all three periods, as well as the overtime, was
consistent.  BC had the edge early, and momentum swung to Michigan as
time wore on.  The first ended with a flurry that the Eagles just
escaped; the last ten seconds of periods were very dangerous for them.
Though BC delivered their fair share of spectacular checks, I think
Michigan's size played a significant role in the game.  And Turco
established his presence in the crease and took a good deal of exception
to anyone who tried to visit him there.
 
Both of the Wolverines' regulation goals were very similar in
execution.  As the puck got flung into the crowd in front of the net,
Mark Kosick waded in and whacked away until it went in.  Kosick had
delivered lots of assists during the year, but seemed reluctant to
shoot; I guess that freak goal against Princeton loosened him up.  If he
consistently adds crashing the net to his game, he could be very, very
good.
 
This was also the main difference between Clemmensen and Turco.  Marty
made sure that the puck didn't stay free on his doorstep, while his
counterpart left himself vulnerable to someone comming in and picking up
any loose change.
 
In the second period, Michigan took a shot from Clemmensen's right that
hit the inside of the far post.  This one was double jeopardy, because
it almost hit him in the back as it ricocheted out.  This was a closer
call than BC's crossbar in OT.  In fact, it was one of the nearest
misses I'd seen since the 1991 fin...no wait, since the second period
Thursday.  There were a lot of close calls in this game; BC shouldn't
feel that all the breaks went agaist them.
 
Other than the crossbar shot, I feel that people have been exaggerating
how good BC's chances in the overtime were.  If it's the same play I
think it was, the post that got hit was the outside of the pipe from in
close, and Turco had it well covered; if it had actually been on goal,
he makes a fairly easy save of it.  The crossing pass that failed to
click was missed by a greater margin than has been indicated, and there
was a Michigan defender who forced it this wide.
 
They did have a couple of nice rushes that almost beat the Wolverine
defensemen; Berenzweig and, in particular, Hunitzicker were exhausted.
Scott Crawford picked up some shifts in OT, but Red obviously wanted to
leave it as much in the hands of his top guys as much as he could.
Richard Hungerford commented on the play of Chris Fox.  I, on the other
hand, thought he was the weak link in the Michigan defense.  He made
nice efforts to get to the puck, but made some horrible decisions when
he passed it.  I was surprised that it wasn't until OT that one of his
cross ice passes right in front of Turco was finally intercepted.  He
made me really nervous for the whole game.
 
On the winning goal, BC completely stopped moving.  I don't know whether
fatigue caught up with them finally, or it was frustration that they had
emptied their magazine and Michigan had dodged all the bullets.  Either
way, no one bothered Fox behind the net after he pinched in, which was a
first, and no one picked up Langfeld when he picked up the puck.  After
77 minutes of spectacular defensive plays, they obviously had nothing
left.
 
 
All Tournament Team
 
F - Mark Kosick - A fine, necessary choice.  He played well on D,
brought the puck up well and scored two goals by adding a new wrinkle to
his game.
 
F - Marty Reasoner - He didn't pick up any points on Saturday, but his
presence affected Michigan every time he stepped on to the ice.  His
goals against OSU were beautiful and he managed to escape for a few
opportunities in the final.
 
F - Josh Langfeld - He's obviously included because he scored the OT
goal.  I've always been a bit dubious about awarding these places based
on one play.  He did play well all around and was a key, but I probably
would have gone with Brian Gionta, for exactly the same reasons Reasoner
was chosen.
 
D - Bubba Berenzweig - He scored two goals on Thursday and engaged in
the Sisyphisian task of playing defense against those BC forwards; you
push the puck up the ice and here it comes rushing back at you.
 
D - Motteau (I've forgotten his first name) - Stood out on a defensive
corps that played superbly.  Every centering pass was contested.
Breakouts were gorgeous.  If he wants to transfer out here (or Gionta,
for that matter) I'd be happy to declare him an honorary Minnesotan.
 
G - Marty Turco - Duh.
 
MVP - Turco - When your team's whole strategy revolves around you
stopping a whole bunch of odd man rushes, you're pretty valuable.  Duh,
again.
 
J. Michael Neal
 
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