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On Tue, 5 Apr 1994, Rick Feldhoff wrote:
 
> 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.
>