I don't have a lot of time as I am terribly behind after the trip to St.Paul.
A few things I need to get out before they are too stale, however.
 
= HOCKEY-L party =>
 
I feel terrible about this one, but we had such a hard trip on the way out
that there really was nothing to do but sleep after the BU game thursday.
I met Carol at the game, but couldn't bring myself to stay up any longer.
Hopefully in Albany!
 
= The Trip =>
 
As long as I'm mentioning it, I might as well say that we left Boston at
1PM (there was only me and another guy from Maine) and arrived in St.Paul
10 minutes before the Maine game started.  We hit every imaginable form
of weather, and made the poor decision to take the northern route out
(remember those stories of NMU arriving late due to weather???).  Rain
in NY, Tornadoes in Ontario, white-out at 3AM in Michigan, ice on the
UP, etc.
 
= The (Maine) Game =>
 
All that for this?  I've been a Maine fan from day 1, and I very seldom
say bad things about us, but let's be serious.  All I ask is a full team
effort.  If we had played with the heart BU played with on Saturday, we
would have won because Northern didn't look that great Thursday.  Instead
we had Jean-Yves Roy on offense, Mike Dunham on defense and the rest of
the team stayed home.  I was gravely disappointed.  We just were not
effective 5-on-5 and NMU didn't take any stupid penalties.  And when it
really mattered in the last 7 minutes, the defense disintegrated.
 
= The BU game =>
 
The key for BU all year has been not taking opponents lightly.  When they
come to play, they were (almost) unstoppable.
 
= THE Game =>
 
I won't pull any punches; this was the best college hockey game I've ever
seen.  I told someone in the *first* period that if they kept skating
like that, they would all be vegetables.  It was real hockey; not the
over penalized stuff we get in Hockey East.  I won't be so kind as most;
I feel that Bradley bears the brunt of the responsibility for at least
two of the goals in the second.  He was just not at 100% all night and
we just didn't see it in the first because of the lack of high quality
shots by NMU.
 
BU left it all on the ice.  It was obvious even when they were up 3-0 that
NMU had the depth to come back and get them.  BU was just so focused on
their task.  7 goals on Bill Pye should have won this game.  After all the
anti-East press I had seen out there, I wanted this game at least as much
as the Maine game.  It was a long trip home, too.
 
= The officiating =>
 
The best.  Just fantastic.  At the level of play of the teams.  Shepherd is
in my mind the best in the country.  You can't call what ain't there to
call, and that fact kept NMU from being shorthanded too often all weekend
and was a major factor in their success.
 
Too much!!!  Just because the season's over doesn't mean we should all
desert!!!  So is Maine the favorite next year just like in the *last*
Olympic year?  Will we be ranked first all year and be beaten by LSSU
in a semifinal in New York again?  Say it isn't so....
 
-dug