If you've read Mike's recent posting, you'll see he made a damn good
case for HE being stronger than the ECAC. For that, I'll give him a
tip of the hat. However, there are a couple of things  in that posting
(which was in response to my origianl posting, HE vs. ECAC) that I'd
like to comment on. First of all, I was in Detroit in '85 to see the
Final Four and I remember the RPI-Providence game well. And I will
admit that George Servinis ( the RPI forward who was on the face-off)
was blatantly off-sides. Why the ref (I forget who it was) never
called it, I don't know. However, I don't believe that the game hinged
solely on that play. Chris Terreri (sp?) and Daren Puppa turned in
spectaular performances for Providence and RPI in goal. But I believe that
RPI, coming off the heels of a triple-overtime victory over Minnesota-
Duluth, was not going to let Providence win under any circumstances.
So if that goal (Servinis') had been disallowed, the Engineers probably
would have found another way. Also, Mike mentioned the fact that RPI
didn't meet anybody of any great calibre on their road to the
championship. I can't help but disagree with that statement; RPI had
to play #1 seeded Minnesota-Duluth to get to the championship game.
The game went into triple overtime and lasted well over four hours.
To say that UMD in 84-85 was not a championship-calibre team is
simply untrue. UMD certainly deserved to win, and it was only by
chance that they lost to RPI. And as for Providence that year, they
were less-than brilliant. Providence defeated BC to advance to the final
game. If anybody took the back-door into the tourney, it was
Providence. BC did everyone a huge favor by upsetting Michigan State.
If it wasn't for BC, both Providence and RPI would have been in the early
game. So, I agree with everything else you said. You proved your point
pretty well. However, I just don't agree with what you said about
RPI and the 85 finals. If you still don't see where I'm coming from,
then I apologize.