I'm sure most of your reading this watched the game last night so I won't be
telling you anything new - just my observations.  I'm a Michigan fan so when
I say "we" I mean UM.
 
Less than 2 minutes into the game, I wrote down how much faster UM was than
BU.  I kept commenting on for the several minutes into the game.  That speed
alone meant to me that we would probably win the game.  All of our lonnngggg
passing lanes that UM seems to love were open all game.  Against Minnesota,
they were not.  BU was just slower to cover the passes or to keep up with our
players.  You would think with a slower team that they would do a lot of
clutching and grabbing but they didn't.  Compared to the mugging in the
Minnesota game, this game was almost like a regular college hockey game when
it came to penalties.
 
Enough people will tell you who scored so I won't.  UM played the first 5
minutes of the game like they were down one goal with 30 seconds to go in the
game and their goalie had been pulled.  I've never seen UM so thoroughly
dominate a team like they did BU in the first period.  With 5 minutes to go
in the first period, UM had outshot BU 13-1.  For BU to be top-ranked this
season, this was just amazing.  Had we been playing a "poorer" team (like
UIC, for example), the score might have been 5-0.  The one comment I did make
at the end of this period was if I was Coach Parker I would be telling my
team that UM just played its best period of the year and they were only ahead
by 2 goals.  A fluke goal here, one good shot there and the game is tied.  I
was nervous about that at this time.
 
For UM fans that did not see this ESPN2 stat, UM has outshot its opponents in
105 of the 124 periods it has played.
 
With 10 minutes to go in the game, BU started hitting and checking much
harder than they had all game - mostly good hard checks but several cheap
ones also.  As an aside, in the first period a BU player skated from behind
one of our players and cross-checked him MEANING HIS HEAD into the boards
which were 3 or 4 feet away.  We've already lost one player this year to a
serious injury and his jersey is on the BU bench.  I would think they would
be more aware of this.  My wife said that in the heat of the game, anything
goes but I don't think so.
 
As for Travis, it was very touching to see Pandalfo carry the jersey through
the line.  Good for you BU.
 
Outside of this game........
What's up with all of the open seating???  There were several areas of the
arena that were more than half empty.  What do you thing can be done to
remedy that??
 
I've seen the CC "winning" goal about 30 times.  It took about 6 or 7 times
to be able to follow the bouncing puck.  It's pretty obvious to me that the
one CC player threw (read hand pass) the puck at the net and missed.  The
next player that touched the puck was CC's Remackel (sp?) and he knocked it
in off the goalie.  As far as I'm concerned this should not have been a goal.
 What a horrible way for UVM to lose and my heart goes out to all of your
players.  I hope we do you a favor on Saturday afternoon.
 
 
Steve Bartley
 
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