Craig writes:
>It seems strange to me that the Hockeyfest final games are not switched.
>As Mike M. mentioned, St. Lawrence is not going to get a very long rest.
 
I agree, I couldn't find out why this was done.  I have two guesses.  One,
they wanted to "feature" the HE game this year as the 2nd game, with the ECAC
game having been the "feature" last year.  Two, since a lot of people who
might be attending the games are from around here and more interested in
the HE game - and they left after BU-UM last year (missing a great SLU-Clarkson
game) - the hope was that more people would stick around for the 2nd game.
 
Either way, it would seem to make sense that the ECAC & HE swap semifinal
days, but I think they were concerned about the ECAC drawing poorly on
Thursday night, especially if most or all of the teams were from far away
which they were.  Many people weren't going to miss school/work to drive
to Boston just to see if their teams made the ECAC championship game, they
would make the drive on Saturday instead.
 
Joe Bertagna said they had no interest in moving the tourney from Boston
to Albany, BTW.  No word on whether the Hockeyfest format will be continued
next year, but they seem very interested in doing so.  I believe Saturday
night's attendance was the best ever for either a Hockeyfest night or an
ECAC final four night.
 
Shawn Walsh commented on Saturday that it would have been nice if the two
games could have been switched in light of what had happened the night before,
but it was clearly too late for that.
 
 
- mike