In regard to the question of Maine goalie Jim Tortorella's goal against
Vasby in the 1980 RPI Tournament (I said 1981 in error in a previous
message), I looked at the program for that game which I have at home.
First of all, Vasby is located in Upplands-Vasby (there is an umlaut
over the "a" in Vasby) which is about 25 km north of Stockholm
according to a promotional brochure that was given out at the game.
Vasby was (is?) an amateur team that in 1980 had two former American
collegians on its roster.  One was Keith Allain who graduated from Yale
in 1980 after a four year stint as goalie.  He held the team career
record for saves with 2422.  The other former collegian, also from
Yale, was Mike Cerrone, who left in 1979 after his sophomore year and
was studying in the University of Stockholm in 1980.  Other players on
the Vasby team were as old as 31.  Cerrone was probably the reason that
Vasby was invited to the tourney--the program notes that his father has
helped recruit players for RPI.  At the time that the program was
written Vasby had a 12-8-1 record in the Eastern Division of the
Swedish Divison I league.  I do not know what level that would be
equivalent to.  They were in third place in the 10-team division
 
Allain was the goalie for Vasby on the first night of the tourney and
faced 61 shots on goal in an 11-3 loss against RPI.  Freshman goalie
Duffy Loney was in the nets for Maine as they defeated Holy Cross 12-2
in the earlier game that afternoon, December 27, 1980.  The next night,
December 28, Maine played Vasby in the first game and RPI played Holy
Cross in the nightcap.  (The latter game was won by RPI 11-2 and
"featured" a total of 34 minor penalties.)  Jim Tortorella was in
goal for Maine while Robert Nyquist was in goal for Vasby.
(Interestingly, Maine played a third goalie, Jeff Nord, on the third
night vs RPI.  I assume that Nord was actually Maine's number 1 goalie
as the game counted in the ECAC standings besides for being for the
tournament championship.)
 
Maine was leading 11-1 against Vasby at 15:13 of the third period when
Maine freshman forward Todd Bjorkstrand received a high-sticking
penalty.  With only 5 seconds left in the penalty at 17:08 Jim
Tortorella scored his historic goal against a guarded net.  As I said
in an earlier message, I only vaguely remember Nyquist nonchalantly
playing the puck.  Interestingly, I did not find any mention of the
goal in the Hockey Newsletter that discussed the holiday tournaments.
The attendence on this second day of the tourney was the lowest of the
three days--just 2168.
 
Typically the attendence at the early game each night (I only vaguely
remember RPI once playing in the afternoon game) starts as very sparce
except for the fans of the participating teams and people like me who
drove up from Washington, DC.  I doubt that Vasby brought a large
contingent with them.  However with less than three minutes left in the
third period more people would have been arriving.  I doubt, however,
that there would have been a lot of noise, as mentioned in a quote from
a newspaper in an earlier message, when Tortorella scored.  Besides for
Maine's supporters (how many could there have been?) few would have
cared--those RPI supporters who were there would logically have rooted
for Vasby, as RPI had already beaten them.
 
Maine, by the way, defeated RPI for the title the third day of the
tourney 5-3 (last goal was empty net) while Vasby, with Nyquist again
in goal, beat Holy Cross 6-4 for third place.  Someone mentioned that
they thought that Andre Aubut of Maine was the tourney MVP.  He was
not--it was Maine's Gary Conn.  Aubut was on the second all-tourney
team.  The first team consisted of RPI goalie Rene Fradet and forwards
Larry Landon and Marty Dallman, Maine forward Rob Zamejc and defensemen
David Ellis and Dwight Montgomery.  The second team consisted of Maine
goalie Jeff Nord, defenseman Andre Aubut and forward Gaetan Bernier,
RPI defenseman Pierre Thibault and forward Michel Deschenes, and Vasby
forward Roger Melin.