Some comments on the 44th NCAA DivI Championship Game:
 
    I feel bad for people who could have watched this game but decided to
    watch Duke-UNLV instead.  I feel a little better for those people who
    switched to ESPN after Duke-UNLV and at least caught the BU comeback
    and the overtimes.
 
    I also couldn't help but think: for all those people tuning into ESPN
    across America and watching a college hockey game for the very first
    time, what a brilliant introduction to the sport.  This game had everything
    you'd ever want to see in hockey.  Powerful offenses, methodical power
    plays, fantastic goaltending, pinpoint passing, crunching bodychecks,
    clutch defensive plays, TWO huge comebacks, exciting overtime play, and a
    ton of great individual efforts that combined into two superb team
    performances.
 
    I've only been watching the DivI championship game since 1985, so I have to
    qualify this by saying that I did not see the famous BG-UMD 4ot match in
    1984.  That said, Saturday's game was the best championship game I have
    ever seen, and very possibly the greatest college game I have ever seen.
 
    It beats out Harvard-Minnesota in 1989, RPI-UMD in 1985 (just barely), and
    Maine-Northeastern in 1988 for the HE championship, among others.  It was
    uncharacteristically high-scoring for a championship game, but it wasn't
    like that ridiculous NHL All-Star Game last year.  Both teams had such
    great scorers that it wasn't possible to keep the score down when they
    really wanted to put that puck in the net.  I don't think it would have
    been as high-scoring if BU hadn't jumped out to that early lead (causing
    NMU to turn it on in the 2nd) or if NMU hadn't stormed back in the 2nd and
    early 3rd (causing BU to turn it on in the 3rd).
 
    I couldn't help but get that feeling of deja vu after the second overtime
    ended.  Four years ago, on another Easter Eve, I sat and watched the New
    York Islanders beat Washington, 3-2, in the seventh game of their playoff
    series - a seventh game that started at 7:30 and didn't end until after
    2 am, halfway through the *fourth* overtime.  If you thought Saturday's
    game was long, imagine sitting through a game for six and a half hours!
 
    I had to change tapes twice during the game.  First after the third period,
    then again after the second overtime.  I had grabbed a tape with an hour
    of tape left on it, thinking, "The way it's been going, it will definitely
    be decided within the first two overtimes."
 
    Not all of our mail has rolled in yet and I'm sure some people have already
    given good descriptions of what happened.  I also don't know that I can do
    justice to what a fantastic game it was.  On top of that, I started making
    a few notes when the game started, and as it went on I wrote less and less
    because I was so involved in the game.  When BU tied it, I just wrote one
    word: Sacco!  I will admit that I began the game pulling for BU but still
    hoping for a good match, and when they mounted their comeback I was
    *really* pulling for them.
 
    Still, I thought Northern was definitely the better team, and to that end,
    justice was done in the form of the better team winning.  Werenka was just
    stupendous, the player of the game in my opinion with Beattie a close
    second.  Werenka made one great defensive play after another, and BU made
    him work.  Then he'd lead a rush into the BU zone.  What a player.  And
    Beattie won a lot of big draws with his feet and was nearly unstoppable
    all night.  Congratulations to NMU and their fans, the Wildcats sure did
    earn it!
 
    Finally, congratulations to the Terriers for a great season and a great
    effort.  I don't know how much respect they had from Western people before
    the game, but they had to have earned some just as NMU earned it from
    Eastern folks.  Probably just about everyone had them counted out with
    eight minutes left.  There's no loss of pride in losing a game like this,
    and they can be disapppointed but still proud.  BU will graduate goalie
    John Bradley (a tough second period, but he was hung out to dry),
    defensemen Phil von Stefenelli and Mark Krys, and forwards David Tomlinson,
    Ed Ronan, Chris McCann. and Darin MacDonald.  In addition, sophomores Tony
    Amonte, Peter Ahola, and Petteri Koskimaki, junior Shawn McEachern, and
    freshman Keith Tkachuk all have opportunities with the pros or with their
    countries' Olympic Teams (Ahola and Koskimaki with Finland).  That's a
    loss of at least 7, maybe 12 players, with 10 or 11 players very likely to
    be gone.  I enjoyed watching this team over the past two years, except when
    they were beating up on my poor Warriors.  Who knows when, if ever, I may
    actually root for BU again? :-)
 
    What a game.
 
Charlie Shub writes:
>                                               However, I'm still not convinced
>the Northern "non-goal" in the second period was not a goal.
 
    I agree, the replays are no help and there is no sound so we can try to see
    if the puck does go in before the whistle.  So, I don't think we can easily
    ascertain whether the wipeout was a good one or not.  That's something
    we'll probably never know.  Werenka was clearly knocked into the net by an
    opponent, but that wasn't the issue.  If the referee decides that he blew
    the whistle before the puck went in the net, then nothing else matters.
    That's what I am assuming the officials' conference after the goal was
    meant to determine.
 
Jim Baines writes:
>No overtime penalties?  That's full-fledged baloney.
 
    In a way I agree, and in a way I agree with the "let them play" school of
    thought.  I am glad the game was decided in a manner that can't be argued
    (although, had BU won, Northern may have had a legitimate argument based
    on the Werenka non-goal).  Both teams committed an equal number of
    uncalled infractions, from my viewpoint.  But I also think the "don't
    change the rules just because it's ot" view is valid.  I'd like to say
    there's a gray area here, but there isn't!  Either you call the penalty
    or you do not.  I cannot honestly say that I agree wholeheartedly with
    either side.  I have problems with both.
 
    NUMBERS
 
    The 15 goals is the most scored in an NCAA championship game in 34 years.
    In 1957, Colorado College beat Michigan, 13-6.  1991 was the third highest-
    scoring championship; in 1950, CC beat BU, 13-4.
 
    Northern's 8 goals are the most by an NCAA championship-winning team since
    Michigan beat BC, 8-2, in 1965.  BU's 7 goals are the most *ever* by a
    runner-up.
 
    The game time of 81:57 makes this the second-longest championship game, to
    1984's 97:11 (Bowling Green 4, Minn-Duluth 3 in 4 ots).
 
    Three of the first 36 championship games were decided in overtime.  Three
    of the last four championship games have been decided in overtime.
 
    NMU's win gives the WCHA two straight national championships.  The last
    conference to do this was also the WCHA with North Dakota in 1982 and
    Wisconsin in 1983.  That ended a stretch of six straight national champion-
    ships by the WCHA.  The last conference other than the WCHA to win two
    straight was the ECAC with BU in 1971 and 1972.
 
 
    - mike
 
    p.s. my string of predicting the national champ comes to an end.  can't
         come any closer, though...