Thoughts on Cornell-SLU
 
Friends and I drove up to Boston on Saturday to give Cornell the extra boost in
the Championship game, after the exciting and trilling ending against Clarkson
on Friday night.  But it was not meant to be, again.  We came home without the
Championship trophy.
 
Just a few quick thoughts on the game:
 
1)John Gallagher:  When I saw him as the referee for the game, I got the same
sinking feeling in my stomach as when I saw Pierre Bellanger in the RPI-Cornell
semifinal a few years back.  Gallagher has refed at least 4 Cornell games this
year and by most counts, won the "Pierre Bellanger" award hands-down.  Though
officiating was not considered a problem by most, I personally found it hard to
believe that Gallagher would be chosen to ref that game (I'm not all together
clear on how the ref was chosen, but don't you think he has refed too many
Cornell games this year?)
 
2)Cornell Fans:  I had the balcony seats on the SLU blue line, which gave us a
good vintage point.  From what I gathered, the only concentration of Cornell
fans was in Loge 31 and 32.  I have to say that it was the smallest Cornell
contigent in the last four years I've seen in the Boston Garden, which made it
less like a home-away-from-home for the Big Red.  I remembered the screaming
and yelling from the fans in that RPI-Cornell semifinal a few years ago.  And I
thought after Friday's win there would be more Cornell fans showing up on
Saturday.  I guess I was disappointed by the small crowd.
 
3)Placement of the Cornell Pep Band:  For two years, I travelled with the Pep
Band to Boston even though I was not a member.  The Garden always seemed to
position the Cornell Band away from the Cornell fan sections.  SLU's band
played right under and next to where their fans sat, while Cornell's band had
to play across the rink.    It's the same thing every year.  Why can't the
Garden allow our band to sit near our fans?  BTW, it was great to have a Battle
of the Bands, unlike the second game in which only one band showed up to play.
 
4)UNH-Maine:  We stayed and watched the Hockey East Championship and got our
money's worth.  Though I did not see a Western team in play this year, I was
very impressed by these two teams, and could see why Maine was ranked so high.
I especially liked their crisp passing and speed, something not seen as often
in ECAC's teams.  Maine really put on a show, featuring a goal from a hard shot
some 25-30 feet out, a power play goal, and an exciting short-handed rush that
resulted in a beautiful goal.  And how about Mike Dunham's Team USA helmet?
That was cool, man!  I felt like watching the Olympics over again, especially
when UNH fans yelling "U-N-H" it almost sounded like "U-S-A" to me.  The Garden
was at least 80% full by the end of the first period.  The fans were much
louder, but the Black Bears fans kept yelling, "M-A-I-N-E, Go Blue" over and
over again.  Seems to me there are more, different cheers heard at a typical
Cornell/ECAC game.
 
Congratulations to St. Lawrence and Maine.  I hope you guys will represent the
eastern hockey well in the NCAA tournaments.
 
Tom Tseng '87