HE SEMIFINALS
Maine 7, UMass-Lowell 5
Chiefs gave a valiant effort but fell short; it was 6-5 till a Mike
Latendresse PPG with a minute left gave Maine the 2-goal cushion. The
comments made by Steve Philbrick at Maine about the value of Snow rang
true tonight, as Dunham didn't play well and was yanked with six minutes
left in the 2nd and Lowell up 4-3. Snow came in and only allowed one
goal the rest of the game. Kariya had at least 2-3 points and pushed
his point total over 90. Black Bears still didn't look like world-
beaters, though, which should set the stage for an interesting
championship game.
BU 2, UNH 0
I'll back up Chris Craig's comments about the officiating. Gravallese
and Fowkes (Rich) seemed like they would have been better off buying
tickets to this game, as they let EVERYTHING go, and it was not a clean
game by any means. If not for the fact that it was close and a semifinal
game, I would have expected fights to erupt (almost happened). But, at
least the two were consistent in not calling penalties. Both BU's goals
were definitely weak, one off a skate. Terriers did dominate until late,
however, and played great defense in front of Herlofsky. Brett Abel
shone in the UNH net and came up with too many incredible saves to count.
Matchups Saturday:
Cons UMass-Lowell vs UNH 5 pm
Champ BU vs Maine 8 pm
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ECAC SEMIFINALS
Clarkson 5, RPI 3
Brown 3, Harvard 1
Cons RPI vs Harvard
Champ Brown vs Clarkson
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CCHA Q-FINALS
LSSU 7, Bowling Green 1
Ferris State 3, MSU 2
Semis
LSSU vs Michigan
FSU vs Miami
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WCHA SEMIFINALS
Minnesota 3, Wisconsin 2 (ot)
Northern Michigan 6, Minn-Duluth 2
Cons Wisconsin vs UMD
Champ NMU vs Minnesota
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Thoughts: Wild night...sets the stage for some crazy things to happen come
Sunday and selection time. Brown over Clarkson to win the ECAC title is a
very real possibility. NMU vs Minn in the WCHA final means that at least
one team that was otherwise on the fence will definitely get in; NMU was/is
unlikely and Minn, though having a better chance, is still on the bubble.
If Brown wins, then it looks like two teams who probably figured on going
before this weekend, will have to cancel those reservations. Big losers
look to be RPI and UNH, both of whom could be left home if Brown beats
Clarkson to win the ECAC and NMU wins the WCHA. Consolation games in HE
and the ECAC could be big as RPI and UNH fight for bids, then watch the
other scores.
Thus, all selections are on hold while we wait to see what happens with
Brown and NMU...RPI and UNH fans will surely root for Clarkson and
Minnesota. Suddenly, in just a few hours, what looked to be a boring
selection process for 1993 has turned 180 degrees...
Early predictions:
At least one of RPI and UNH will not get in. Chances are it will be RPI,
although a win over Harvard in the consolation along with a UNH loss to UML
in the HE cons might swing it the other way. Minnesota helped themselves
tremendously by beating Wisconsin and might get in on the strength of that
game, even if NMU wins the WCHA, because the Gophers picked up a lot of
ground on the other teams they sat on the fence with (including MSU).
In fact, I believe that the results of the WCHA semis all but guaranteed
that the East will get only 5 teams this year. That's because the West
teams that had to do well to improve their chances, did so, and the East
teams that had to do well to improve THEIR chances, didn't. Six teams are
a lock from the West: Miami, Michigan, UMD, LSSU, Wisconsin, and one of
NMU/Minnesota. MSU appears to still have the edge over RPI/UNH, and they
could be the 7th team. MSU's chances improve if Minnesota wins the WCHA.
Four East teams are a lock: Maine, BU (wrapped up 2nd seed IMO), Harvard,
Clarkson. Along with 2 out of {NMU/Minn/MSU}, that's 11 seeds, leaving
room for only one of RPI/UNH - none if Brown upsets Clarkson.
Also...starting to look like the CCHA and HE will each take the two byes in
their respective regions.
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Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.) *HMN*
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