I watched the BC-Minnesota game last night and I have a few comments:
 
    Is this going to be the last year of the Freeze-Out?  A game as
    huge as this one was, and the stands looked completely empty when
    the game started!  Maybe it was because it was the early game, but
    there didn't seem to be many more fans by the time the game ended.
    MSU-Tor wasn't shown here, so I don't know what the crowd was
    like for that game.
 
    BC-Minn was a game that tried desperately to be fast-paced and should
    have been, except for the fact that the officiating was just not
    very good, especially for a game of this caliber.  The linesmen
    missed offsides calls all night, and the referee refused to let
    the two teams, neither of which are anywhere near "cheap", play
    this game out - he kept calling penalties for borderline infractions
    that would have been let go by 99% of the referees I know.  On
    both teams.  This tended to slow the game down since every two or
    three minutes something was being called.  It's too bad that had
    to happen.  This game would have been remembered as one of the best
    of the season had it been played in Minnesota or Boston, with some
    fans and a referee who knew what he was doing.
 
    Finally, to compliment this, the two guys announcing the game were THE
    WORST I have ever heard in my life.  I don't remember their names, but
    I bet I'll have to suffer through them again tonight for BC-MSU.  I
    got the feeling they were basketball announcers doing hockey for a
    night or two.  Every shot that didn't go in the net was "no good";
    on a turnover, a team moved up ice "on the fast break".  They also
    criticized both teams for allowing the opponents to take shots from
    the point on the power play - God forbid!  I am convinced the sum
    total of these guys' hockey knowledge came from watching the Kings
    since the Great One arrived two years ago.
 
    The first period, they were almost silent as they couldn't figure out
    who was who.  "And now, Minnesota with the puck...and the Eagles take
    it away."  They also let Minnesota have it for moving the puck too
    much on the power play and not taking shots.  Every time they passed
    to another guy, the announcer would say, "There's a shot...there's
    a shot..." (shots they supposedly should have taken)  Of course, what
    might have had just a little bit to do with the low number of shots
    was that BC is a very good penalty-killing team and they covered the
    Gophers pretty well.  Hey, these are two of the best teams in the
    country!  Don't blink your eyes, you might miss them.
 
    At any rate, this is the fourth straight time I've seen these two teams
    play, and the result wasn't unexpected (a close game).  They match up
    very well, and if not for BC's great defense in the third, the Gophers
    would have come back to win.  BC forced Minnesota to take mostly
    long shots which LaGrand saw, and any rebounds were knocked away
    quickly by the D.
 
    Stolp also played well in the Minnesota net and can probably only be
    faulted for Emma's goal in the first when he was a little out of
    position.  Both of Heinze's goals (one shorthanded) in the second came
    about because of lackadaisical defense.  Likewise, Hankinson's goal
    that made it 1-0 UM in the first was partly LaGrand's and partly his
    teammates' fault.  Hankinson broke away from an Eagle behind the net
    and sneaked over to LaGrand's left, where he jammed in a cross-ice pass
    that LaGrand was a spectator on.  It looked like LaGrand let the pass
    go because he didn't realize Hankinson was there and he probably
    expected the puck to just go to the corner.  I think this goal helped
    him get his head in the game, though.
 
    I don't know if the Freeze-Out is a very big success.  Measured on
    quality of play, it looks like it will be; measured on turnout -
    probably not.
 
    If the LA fans don't want college hockey, no sense in trying to force
    it down their throats.  If you're going to get three of the top teams
    in US college hockey together for a tourney, at least make it someplace
    where REAL fans will appreciate it.  I would have liked to go.
 
 
    - mike (a graduate, at last)
 
    p.s. enjoy the holidays, everyone!
    p.p.s. This is not directed at the displaced hockey fans who *did* make
        the game or at the fans who traveled out to LA to see their teams
        play.