In response to Jay H.'s comment about Clarkson's game winning goal.  IT WAS
OBVIOUSLY IN THE NET!  I watched the game on NESN and they showed a replay
from a camera above the net.  The puck rolled up Kuntar's chest, down his
arm and across the goal line.  It went a good 5 inches across the line before
Kuntar swept it out of the net.  He had to reach BACK into the goal to get the
puck.  I do not understand the tantrum that he threw, except to get the
winning goal waved off.  He damn well knew where the puck was and he never had
control of it.  It was very childish of him to go and start banging on the
glass to make the goal judge look bad.  If that had been the referee, he
most likely would have been called for a misconduct.
 
Just because the final wasn't a flashy high speed, offensive game, how can you
call it a weak win?  I'll admit that the BU-UMO game was that, but Clarkson
chose to play more of a defensive game.  Clarkson had to do this to keep tabs
on SLU's speedy forwards.  Clarkson is not known for its speed either.  I
just think that your impression of the game was colored by what you saw in
the HE final.  That was a game with a lot more end to end rushes and offensive
flair.
 
Some more details on the ECAC final.
 
Clarkson really did storm out strong and took the play right to SLU.  SLU
wasn't able to get anything together until their pp late in the period after
Clarkson had jumped out 3-0.  Clarkson got their pp going last night and had
three pp goals.  SLU did get back into the game on a pp goal.  However,
Clarkson really had some good chances while killing an SLU pp in the second
period.  Dave Trombley and Jeff Torey both came close.  Clarkson did relax
their fore-checking and tried to plain containment defense, not being very
aggressive, to allow SLU to get three goals.  Clarkson has had trouble in
games where they get out to an early lead.  At SLU in December, they went up
by 4, only to allow the explosive SLU offense to eventually win the game, 6-5
in OT.  As Walt from Yale had flatterringly put it, Clarkson will go the
way Hugo Belanger goes, which was the case last night.  Hugo played a great
game and well deserved the MVP, with 3 goals and an assist.  Hat's off to
Hugo (pun intended).  Hugo is the third sophomore at Clarkson to score 100
points, the other two being Kevin Zappia and Colin Patterson.
 
Now for the NCAAs:  The seeding in the east will be real interesting, since
BC lost early, Maine lost to BU, BU beat Maine and Clarkson was league champs.
I feel that all four teams should be the top four seeds, that's easy, but
as far as who gets the byes, I don't know.  Before the tournaments it was
1. BC, 2. UMO, 3. Clarkson, 4. BU.  Now with BU winning HE, the NCAA commis-
sion will have trouble justifying making BU third and Clarkson fourth.  I
think that either Maine or BC will lose a bye.  I'm only guessing.
 
Enough from my biased view point.
 
Mike Zak
Clarkson '87, '90,... (Fall '91 ?!?)