Wisconsin 4  St Cloud 3  ot
 
The deciding game in this best of three quarterfinal matchup
was a real nailbiter.  The first two periods were cautiously played
by both teams.  The St Cloud forechecking caused UW problems at
times.  St Cloud goalie Grant Sjerven played well when Wisc was able to
create a little pressure.  The first period ended 0-0.  The second
period started a familiar weekend pattern.  UW scored, SCS replied
with a goal 2 minutes later.  UW scored again, SCS scored again.
The second period ended 2-2.
 
The third period was when the excitement really started.  Chic Pojar
scored for SCS at approx 2:45.  The Badgers responded by raising the
offensive pressure a notch.  A shot from the left point rebounded
off Sjerven to a wide open Doug Macdonald a few feet to left of the
goal.  He buried the puck in the top of the net.  Goal!   Simply not
acording to Ref Buzz C.  For some inexplicable reason he waved the goal
off.  Watching the tv reply(close to 20 times), there was no reason to
wave the goal off.  Even more puzzling, it appeared that Buzz signaled
goal for a moment then changed his mind and made the waved off signal.
 
The Badgers had another 10-12 minutes of good pressure as St Cloud
assumed a defensive posture.  UW was not able to get many high quality
shots and Sjerven continued his good play.  Finally with 59 seconds left
Chris Nelson fired a shot from the left point that went by two SCS
defensemen in front of the net, deflected off Sjerven and into the net.
It is possible one of the defensemen either deflected the puck slightly or
screened the goalie.  SCS was quite deflated by this turn of events and
mercifully for them the game went into overtime.
 
The overtime period simply extended St Cloud's misery.  At 0:21 seconds
a UW shot rebounded hard from the back boards out to the left point(again).
Brian Rafelski got off a fluttering shot that went untouched into the
net.  It seemed that Sjerven never got set for the shot.  Perhaps he lost sight
of the puck on the initial rebound or due to the many players near the crease.
 
In the seven games versus St Cloud, Wisc was 6-1.  However the games were
all very close.  The scores were 5-4, 5-4, 5-4, 6-2, 6-5 ot, 3-5, 4-3 ot.
St Cloud played as well as UW this weekend but didn't get the breaks when
they needed them.
 
UW plays Friday at 2:05 pm against Northern Michigan in the WCHA semifinals.
 
---mark grassl
[log in to unmask]
 
P.S.  Trivial question?  Is it standard to denote left and right point
from the goalie's viewpoint, as I have done, or the other way around?