Well.... Of course I am disapointed that Wisconsin didn't do better in
the NCAA's ... or in the WCHA tournament. But, to echo what someone (Mark?)
said, I don't recall the Wisconsin people on the list predicting
the Badgers to win the series, let alone a blow-out. We haven't
blown-out any of the better teams this season.
 
Congratulations to Clarkson on their victories, and good luck.
 
Now, to some comments:
 
    *   Wisconsin may be the defending NCAA champs -- and if my team
	had beaten the defending champs I'd gloat and enjoy it, but
	reality is that this *isn't* the team that won it last year --
	in college sports, it almost never is.
 
    *   [Previous point continued] Wisconsin finished higher in the
	WCHA than predicted in pre-season polls (then again, North
	Dakota finished lower, so we should probably just ignore
	pre-season polls all together). One hockey (newspaper) reporter
	was interviewed on the radio a few weeks ago (before the first
	round of the WCHA tournament) and gave his vote for WCHA coach
	of the year to Jeff Sauer, for accomplishing much more than was
	expected (I believe Rick Comley was coach of the year, and I am
	not arguing against his selection).
 
    *   Wisconsin was 2-6 in the last four weeks. The only wins were
	over UMD in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, and despite
	the almost-made-it comeback against Minnesota in the WCHA
	semi-finals, didn't play well down the stretch.
 
    *	Clarkson has an awesome powerplay and played very well,
	doing the right things to beat Wisconsin.
 
    *   By all reports, Wisconsin played terrible Friday night against
	Clarkson. A reporter for one of the local papers wrote something
	about mass amnesia:  forgetting how to play defense, forgetting
	how to play as a team, and forgetting all the little things
	that got them into the tournament.
 
    *   It isn't an excuse for losing the series, but the week had its
	share of distraction for the team: First, as mentioned before,
	the WCHA tournament ended Monday night. The team got back to
	Madison late monday, and went to class Tuesday. They left
	Wednesday for upstate NY. I don't know where they flew into,
	but then they had a bus ride to the Potsdam area. They couldn't
	stay in Potsdam, no hotels there could/would take them, so they
	stayed 45 miles away (don't remember the name of the town).
	Getting to and from the rink was another bus ride, so they
	didn't have a Friday morning skate. On his TV show (recorded
	early in the week), Sauer was aked about all this. He said it
	was more reason for the WCHA tournament to be on the weekend,
	and the NCAA tournament to be at sites with the best facilities
	avaliable for a tournament (in other words, not out at host
	schools, but at major sites. According to NCAA rules, the host
	team is reponsible for local arraingments for the visiting
	team, and obviously Sauer was not thrilled with what Clarkson
	came up with. That doesn't mean they didn't do their best).  He
	said the team would just have to ignore the distractions and
	concentrate on the games.
 
    *   Sauer was not pleased with the officiating in either game. Both
	sets of radio announcers said the linesmen were even worse
	(both ways), and felt that the ref was not good (again, they
	felt he made several weak calls both ways). In particular, they
	said he missed the initial penalty on a lot of calls, and
	called a lot of questionable penalties. They also said that the
	Clarkson Coach wasn't happy with the officiating either,
	questioning many calls and complaining at the ends of (some of)
	the periods.
 
    *   As for the too-many-men on the ice call in game 2, one set of
	announcers didn't see it at all, the other saw it and felt that
	the ref blew it -- he said the player wasn't in the play, and
	99% of the time the penalty would not have been called. I never
	heard an explanation of what happened, and I didn't see it, so
	I don't know.
 
    *   I don't know why the band didn't go to Clarkson, I assume
	because of cost, amount of classes they would have to miss, and
	difficulty finding a place to stay.
 
    *   Re: Sauer's prediction that Clarkson won't beat Lake Superior
	is just that: a prediction. I'm sure it wasn't meant as a cut
	at Clarkson.  If a reporter asks a coach how an opponent will
	do against another opponent, the coach answers the question.
 
    *	Both Madison campus papers used (the same) article from
	the Clarkson student paper to cover the series.
 
This is already too long, and it is begining to sound like I am
making excuses... I'm not (much).
 
Again, congrats to Clarkson and good luck!
 
	--david