Associate Professor of Biochemistry
Phone: (502)852-5752; Fax: (502)852-6222
 
A few thoughts on our (Pam & Darrell F. too) 1st Hockey-L Phinal Phour.
 
Note: Miscellany, thanks at beginning; game comments p.3.; BU "apology" at
end. If you weren't in St Paul or watched the games, or intend to go next yr;
delete now. The game analyses (overviews) should provide a different
perspective from an ex college hockey player now scientist point of view.
 
1. NAME: There seems to be 4 names in use: NCAA Hockey Championship; Phinal
Phour; final four (lower case); Frigid Four. None of them feels right to me.
Perhaps we should have a "Rename the NC$$ Hockey Championship" contest.
Although they tried this with the Big Bang recently and it was a miserable
failure, maybe we have some more creative folks on Hockey-L. I tend to be a
bit practical and would like to take advantage of the basketball Final Four
name and, in fact, we are using the same format so I'll suggest - HOCKEY Final
Four.
 
2. TRAVEL: Louisville is a long way from St.Paul! A couple of Hockey-Lers came
from Anchorage to get the unofficial distance award, but we got the longest
drive award. With the Sat nite time change, we lost two hours before even
leaving on the return trip to Lou-a-vul (the way the natives say it). Just to
make sure it was a real challenge, we stayed up til 1 a.m. to watch the end of
the Untouchables with our son, had breakfast in Dinkytown (a real name!) next
to UM campus and drove thru Madison and UW campus on return. It has taken 2
days to recover, but it was certainly worth it.
 
CAROL: Thanks, thanks and thanks for arranging tickets, Hockey-L dinner,
Mariucci tour, tickets to USHL (Jr A) Vulcans game at Mariucci, Hockey-L pins,
Hockey-L T-shirts, etc,etc. The $64,000 question - Is there anyone in the
Boston/Providence area willing to help organize next yrs activities? I will
volunteer now to help in '96 when the HOCKEY Final Four visits Cincinnati.
 
BOB GILREATH & ERIK BIEVER: The Cubs-Twins preseason game was a nice prelude
to the Championship game. Thanks for organizing, getting tickets, etc. As a
true Cubs fan Bob got a taste of the season ahead when a 5-2 Cubs lead 2/3
thru the game turned into a rout after a 10 run Twins rally. I noticed the
Cubs did the same thing yesterday and as a hopeless Red Sox fan, I understand.
 
GAME 1: Harvard-LSSU. LSSU wins 3-2 right after OT started. Until I saw what
LSSU did to BU, I didn't appreciate fully how they had also taken Harvard out
of their game. However, LSSU was not as effective with Harvard because of H's
speed. The 1st period was the best, a Harvard player took a useless penalty
early, the Lakers scored; BUT, only the spectacular play of Lacher kept the
score from being 3-1 Harvard at the end of one. I still can't believe that any
goalie could have made all 3 saves on what seemed like sure goals. On one, I
swear Lacher reacted to and caught a blazing point blank shot heading for open
net. Lacher seemed to have the fastest reflexes of any goalie I've seen in
quite a few yrs. I can understand how he might have set a 375 min scoreless
record if he plays like that all the time. Harvard tried to lose in the last 5
min of the 3rd period with, what I thought, was a deserved 5 min major for
checking from behind. Despite a 2 min Laker penalty, they had Harvard on their
heels and continued it into the overtime. There were some comments about this
being a dullish game and I'd have to disagree. The lack of cheering from all
but a small corner of Laker fans might have made it seem that way, however it
was good hockey throughout and I'd like to see a tape replay if anyone has
one.
 
BU 4 : MN 1. BU dominated the 1st period and MN looked completely outclassed
and outplayed. I was projecting an 8-1 or 8-2 score in my mind. BUT, in
between the 1st and 2nd periods, I think the teams switched uniforms. MN took
it to BU outshot them about 15-5 (the reverse of per.1). MN had a lot of very
good scoring opportunities, but couldn't seem to finish them up. I have a
vivid memory of a MN player skating unmolested thru the crease, having half
thenet open and somehow managing to slide the puck wide. Since the crowd was
predominantly MN fans, getting the score to 3-2 could have changed the game
completely. I was disappointed in the quality of the MN team after one period,
but reassured during the rest of the game that they are one of the top teams
in the country and did deserve to be there. I like the fact that they only
recruit MN kids and with that talent pool, I can see why they are in the hunt
every yr. We bought a copy of Gopher Hockey by the Hockey Gopher and laughed a
lot on the trip home about some of the reallife hockey stories.
 
LSSU 9 - BU 1. I still can't believe how completely LSSU took away BU's entire
offense. IMHO Parker was completely outcoached and I don't think there was a
good excuse for it. They were beaten badly by LSSU in the semis last yr,
Parker was quoted as saying things prior to the game which indicated he knew
what to expect - e.g., LSSU plays disciplined positional, in-your-face
defense, generates offense from defense, etc. What bothered me most was after
the game, Parker took no - read zero blame. he made statements which indicated
he thought it was a lack of , effort, focus, discipline on part of players
which he could not explain. LSSU bottled up BU with ferocious forechecking and
they took the boards away from BU so BU couldn't seem to breakout of their own
end in any semblence of an offense. When LSSU forced an error, they seemed to
swarm into the attack mode before BU could recover. LSSU played like they had
a man advantage throughout. On the power play LSSU turned it into a 5 on 3
because they would get a BU defender on the ice trying to block shots and they
dominated for 3 PPG and another which came just after a penalty expired. When
BU was on the power play LSSU neutralized them because of their
predictability. After one power play I told my son to watch how BU used the
traditional 3 deep and wide power play breakout, but always put a man at the
Blue line boards of LSSU opposite the side the puck was coming out and then
skated him across the blue line. In contrast, LSSU used the 3 man power play
breakout, but had their other 2 forwards doing a figure eight drill in the
neutral zone,varying which part of the neutral zone they used to start an
unpredictable power play scheme. Anyhow LSSU deserved evrything they got and
the fans seemed to appreciate it and congratulate them for it. They are
certainly a worthy and talented championship team. Jackson deserves a lot of
credit for their success and don't forget, they were only one period away from
making it 3 straight since they had a 4-2 lead on Maine last yr. going into
the 3rd period.
 
BU "APOLOGY": At the hockey-L dinner, during introductions, I noted where our
family was from and that we cheering for all the teams and added, "but BU "
which brought an onslaught of boo's from the BU contingent. Recall this was
just prior to the BU-MN game. The rapid response preceded my full sentence and
there was no use in trying to correct it then. However, "but BU is the team
I'll be cheering for tonight. " would have generated an equal response from
the MN fans. Since many of the introductory comments were quite entertaining,
it all fit in and didn't matter, but to set the record straight, I played high
school hockey with BU Ass't Coach Bill Berglund who is a long lost friend and
had no intention of cheering against BU. By the way, Berglund had incredibly
fast reflexes as a goalie and I thought of him when I was watching Lacher in
the Harvard - LSSU game.