Lake Superior 5 -Cornell 4
 
This game was much closer than I thought it would be.  I thought that the Big
Red played very well and the LSSU coverage in their own end was not as solid
as it usually is.  How much of this was just sloppy and how much Cornell
caused, I really couldn't tell.
 
The most interesting aspect was the way in which the Lakers dominated in the
first half of each period and Cornell slowly took it back.  This was
particularly noticeable in the second period.  It wasn't until after the Matt
Alvey goal put LSSU ahead 5-4 at the seven minute mark of the third that Lake
State showed their dump and smother the neutral zone style that makes them so
tough.  It took Cornell a while to solve it before they could mount a serious
threat.
 
In some ways, the decisive factor was the Jason Elliott was NOT sharp early
in the game.  Both of the first two LSSU goals were very soft and the backup
was warming up in the tunnel.  He got it turned around, but the tone had been
set that Cornell was going to be playing catchup all night.  That's a tough
way to play Lake state.  They managed to tie it at four, but never went
ahead.
 
Robin Anderson and john Seidel, normally a good pair of WCHA refs had an
inconsistent game, but it probably wasn't the difference.  The penalties came
in streaks, and Mike Schaefer looked like he was going to blow a gasket after
three straight in the third, but he had been helped by the same thing in the
second.
 
In all, a very exciting game, though not as sharply played as I had hoped on
the part of LSSU.
 
 
Clarkson 6 - Western Michigan 1
 
For two periods, this was the Dan Murphy Story.  Western outshot Clarkson
28-14 through two, but were trailing 2-0.  The Broncos didn't shoot
particularly well, making life a bit easier for Murphy, but he came up big.
 The Golden Knights took over in the third as Western lost its cool.
 
I must compliment Clarkson on their defensive fundamentals: they almost never
miss an open field tackle.  Based just on this one game, I have trouble
believing that Adam Wodon and Luiz Valente get into such debates about who
play clutch-and-grab and don't mention these guys.  They also take cheap
shots; the first period was filled with them smashing the Broncos face first
into the boards, with only one minor penalty.
 
It was not a good night for what people have claimed is the best HE ref pair
(Frank Cole and Drew Taylor), either.  After missing all the checks from
behind early, they gave a major to Western's Jeremy Brown for running someone
into the crossbar with 13 minutes to play and Western still holding some hope
of a comeback.  In isolation, it was a defensible call; but I understand
WMU's frustration with it, considering the earlier goings on.  From there, a
decent game really degenerated until, with it five-nothing and five minutes
to play, Bill Wilkinson called his troops aside and threatened them with
never playing again if they took any unnecessary penalties.  Combined with
tight calling (boy-oh-boy, where was it earlier?), this led to the end coming
fairly quickly.
 
The deciding factors in the game Murhpy's goaltending and Western's total
ineptitude on the power play.  Even if they had gotten more calls, they would
have had to look a lot better to make it pay off.  Beyond Murphy, the rest of
the Golden Knights failed to come out of the dressing room for the first two
periods.  Their defensive play was absolutely atrocious with a myriad of
turnovers in their own zone and their offense was non-existent for most of
this stretch.  This same kind of game today, and BU will win by eight goals.
 
 
TV Coverage
 
If JohnH thinks that Larry Osterman talks too much, Bob Norton would drive
him insane.  It's not that he describes the action in too much detail, but
every anecdote and cliche takes twice as many words as it needs to.  He also
repeats a lot of key phrases.  If I hear him say, "A face-off won is a
possession the other team doesn't have," one more time, I'm going to be
smashing my head against the table.
 
Also, I'd be interested to know which organization was providing the feed.
 The camera work and the guys in the truck were of poor caliber.  the view
was often in the wrong place, such as when Cornell had a 2-on-1 (Norton told
me so) but the picture showed us a player going off on a change.  If this
thing is the norm for eastern hockey coverage, I appreciate MSC even more.
 
J. Michael Jackson
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.