OK, I know that at least two people on this list chose to skip the ECAC
semifinal portion of Hockeyfest to go see the U2 concert tonight in Worcester.
You missed a chance to see something that people will be talking about for
years, maybe centuries to come.
 
According to ECAC head Joe Bertagna, this was the longest night in ECAC
tournament history.  It began at 5:00 pm and ended at 12:30 am.  7.5 hours
of great hockey.
 
*BOTH* ECAC semifinal games were decided in *double* overtime.  Cornell's
Tyler McManus scored his second of the game at 0:35 of the second overtime
to beat Clarkson, 4-3.  Game time: 70:35.
 
Then, St Lawrence came from down 5-2 in the third to beat RPI, 6-5, at 4:40
of the second overtime on a rebound goal by Chris Wells.  Game time: 74:40.
According to the ECAC, this was the longest game in ECAC tournament history.
 
To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time ever that two games in
one tournament went into double overtime on the same night at the same site.
(The pair of triple ot games in 1985 between BC-PC and RPI-UMD were played
on successive evenings.)  Neither game tonight approached the longest college
game in history; the 17th longest game is about 80 minutes long.  I will
repost that list sometime if there is interest; I've been updating it
through this season.
 
Official boxes to come soon.  I had sent out the HE semifinal boxes with some
details earlier today from work, but apparently they didn't get out.  I will
have to send them again.  Sorry about that.
 
Saturday's championships are:
ECAC Cornell-St Lawrence 5:00
HE New Hampshire-Maine 8:00
 
SLU's win avoided the double upset which would have guaranteed an underdog an
NC$$ bid.  Cornell can still get that bid with a win.  The numbers were
flying in the Garden press room when it appeared RPI would pull out the win.
Consensus was that Clarkson was finished if RPI had won, and as it is, they
still appear to be in big trouble unless SLU should win over Cornell.
 
Perhaps ironically, the winner of the pool held to guess the time of the game-
winning goal in RPI-SLU was RPI SID Al Shibley, who had guessed something
like 12:40, longer than any other person in the press room had picked.
 
Truly a memorable evening.  I am exhausted, but I wonder how the Saints will
be able to come back to play for the title at 5 pm tomorrow (today).
---
Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   mikem@{beanpot,bubba}.ma30.bull.com