Heard today that the ECACHL (which is now back to ECAC) will keep the
tournament in Albany through 2010.  Yes I know that Lake Placid is a
sentimental favorite, but Albany is centrally located and much easier to get
to than Lake Placid (especially in the middle of March). Now, if the T-U
arena could only learn to make a decent cup of coffee.

It was interesting to watch Dartmouth's style of play. Rather than use
flashy outside slapshots broadcasting their shots well in advance. they had
a tendency to get their forwards cycling through the slot, looking for
deflections and screening the goalie. The shooters used quick surprising
wrist shots that were quite effective. I found their style to be different
from most teams and they scored most of their goals in this way. Although it
didn't help them win a game this weekend, they were in both games until the
end.. Perhaps with a few big men in the middle to pick up rebounds, they
could take their game to the next level.

The ECAC welcomed  Quinnipiac to the final four this weekend and the Bobcats
did themselves proud. The final four attendance is always tricky to predict
depending on who the participants are.  You know that Cornell and Clarkson
will always bring a crowd.  Presumably RPI and Union would draw a crowd, if
only one or both could make it to the semifinals (sigh!!!).  Quinnipiac drew
a nice crowd this weekend, especially considering that Friday produced a
March snowstorm of more than a foot of snow.  After upsetting SLU, even more
fans drove up from Connecticut to cheer their team on.  And they came oh so
close taking a 2-0 lead against  Clarkson into the third period before the
Knights came back to take the title.

There were a lot of yellow Quinnipiac tee shirts in the crowd, many of which
were donned (suspiciously) by people wearing red hats reading SLU.  Not
surprisingly, the SLU fans  were rooting for Quinnipiac.  Why?  Because they
were playing against Clarkson (duh!!).  But many Saints fans found
themselves in a dilemma.  They soon realized that Clarkson was going to the
NCAA's regardless; all that was at stake was their number 1 seed in a
regional.  If Clarkson lost,  Quinnipiac would get the autobid, Clarkson
would still go and there would be one less at large bid.  That extra bid
might belong to St. Lawrence.  So the Saints had to either root for the
Knights or have their season end. Most chose to leave the building and go
across the street to celebrate St. Patricks Day.

Kudos to the Quinnipiac band who had the foresight between period 2 and
period 3 to play the RPI fight song to win RPI fans over to their side.
Great idea, guys but we were with you all the way.  After all, you were
playing Clarkson.

   So that's it for me for another year.  But for all you RPI fans out
there,  wait'll next year!!!