Well, this was my first Phinal Phour live in the flesh, and I'd have to say
that whatever superlatives you hear about Milwaukee, the Bradley Center, and
the tournament itself are accurate.  I had a terrific time at the Phinal
Phour, both at the games and away from the ice, and the experience more than
made up for the frankly rotten time I had getting there and getting back.
Hopefully, the Bradley will get the "hockey championships" again soon -- it
sounds like the NC$$ got a fair bit of moolah out of this tournament, so
it's not unlikely that they'll keep Milwaukee in mind.
 
Some more brief (I promise!) game thoughts:
 
Michigan - Maine:
     As has been mentioned, the Black Bears had a lot of difficulty early in
     the first period of this one, especially on defense.  Garth Snow looked
     a little nervous early on, as he iced the puck a minute into the game.
     After allowing a couple of early goals, however, he settled down, and
     Maine started to follow the puck into the Michigan zone more.  The Wol-
     verines had a couple of golden opportunities twelve minutes and four-
     teen minutes into the first period, as they came up with a pair of
     3-on-1 breaks.  On the first, Snow stopped the first shot, and the
     rebound slapper wound up on the outside of the net.  Snow, with help
     from the Maine defender, stuffed the second breakaway, forcing the
     Wolverine shooter behind the net.
 
     Although Michigan took the lead again eight minutes into the second and
     held it for quite a while, it was the Black Bears who controlled the
     sometimes rough play over the last two periods of regulation.  In fact,
     seconds before Aaron Ward's power-play goal put the Wolverines in the
     lead, Maine had a pair of short-handed breakaways and forced Michigan
     goalie Steve Shields to come up with a couple of great saves.
 
     Quick note on Maine's phantom non-goal in the third period:  the
     "scorer" was Patrice Tardif, on a wrap-around, and he and friends were
     none too pleased when referee Harry Ammian didn't signal a goal.  There
     was a good 15-second verbal exchange before cooler heads finally pre-
     vailed.  The real game-tying goal, with 4:03 left in regulation, was a
     fairly routine play, but the execution was beautiful and quite worthy
     of a championship team.  Jim Montgomery won a faceoff to the left of
     Steve Shields and worked the puck forward to the right edge of the
     crease, where he rolled a pass through the crease behind Shields to a
     waiting Cal Ingraham for the tap-in.  Nice.  The Wolverines' last real
     chance at winning came with less than three minutes left in the third
     period, when a momentary Maine defensive breakdown left Ward all alone
     and Snow out of position.  As Snow scrambled back, Ward put a few fakes
     on him, but he wound up losing the puck in front of the net, and Snow
     was able to poke it away.
 
Boston University - Lake Superior:
     Yes, "Boston U" got blown out, and they were also physically outplayed
     by the Lakers, but this game stayed pretty close (2-1) until midway
     through the second period, when a hooking penalty on Kaj Linna and a
     holding call on Stephen Foster gave Lake Superior a 5-on-3.  The Lakers
     lost no time converting that one as well as the ensuing 5-on-4, and all
     of a sudden, BU was out of the game.  Credit the Brian Rolston-Sean
     Tallaire-Rob Valicevic line, which scored both goals.  The second one
     was in large part due to a mistake on BU goalie Derek Herlofsky's part,
     as he came out of the crease too early to challenge Tallaire on a
     breakaway.  Tallaire simply skated around him and popped the puck into
     the open net.
 
     And a smack on the head to LSSU goalie Blaine Lacher (actually, he did
     take a slapshot off the left side of his helmet in the third period).
     Apparently the story is that BU's Jacques Joubert was doing more than
     celebrating after the Terriers' first and only goal -- he was taunting
     Lacher, which is what prompted the goalie to deck him.  But obviously,
     that's no excuse.  Lacher nearly got another penalty some minutes
     later, after a BU player crashed the net and fell on top of him.
     Lacher shoved the guy off him and *barely* restrained himself from
     taking a poke at the guy.  Lacher showed in the tournament that he's a
     fine goalie, but he's going to wind up getting in even worse trouble
     (and probably costing the Lakers a few games) if he doesn't learn to
     control his temper pretty quickly.
 
     BU had a hockey jersey hanging behind the team bench in tribute to #22,
     forward David Dahlberg, who did not make the trip to the tournament
     because his mother had died earlier in the week after a long illness.
 
Lake Superior - Maine:
     Not much to add to what's already been said about this extraordinary
     game, except that once again, the ECAC officiating crew did not dis-
     tinguish itself.  At least, as Mike mentioned, they were consistent,
     and the outcome of the game was not determined by what was called and
     what wasn't, but we could have done with a little more control there.
     I was also one of those who was convinced that the Lakers' shot off the
     crossbar with less than a minute remaining had actually hit the net
     BEHIND the crossbar and was therefore a goal.  I haven't seen any
     replays yet (unfortunately, the replay screen at the Bradley Center
     couldn't conclusively prove that the camera worked, much less whether
     the puck was in the net or not), but after reading the descriptions
     that have been posted and after reflecting on the Lakers' non-reaction,
     I'd have to agree that there was no goal.  Presumably, the Lake
     Superior players were close enough to hear the "ping" off the crossbar.
     Besides, the puck dropped to the left side of the crease, where, with
     Garth Snow looking the other way, a Laker had a perfect chance to push
     it across the line... but he whiffed.  It just was not to be.  Con-
     gratulations to the Maine Black Bears for their NC$$ championship, and
     congrats also to the runner-up Lakers for making Maine earn it.
 
     I'll toot Mike the Guru's horn a little here by noting that when the
     third period began, he told Heather something to the effect of, "Two
     things this period:  Snow won't give up a goal, and watch out for
     Montgomery."  Not bad.  (At least, that's what they CLAIM he said --
     how do we know these two aren't in cahoots? :-)
 
I don't think the NC$$ All-Tournament team has been posted yet, so here it
is:
 
     FORWARD:  Jim Montgomery, Maine
               Paul Kariya, Maine
               Brian Rolston, Lake Superior
     DEFENSE:  Chris Imes, Maine
               Michael Smith, Lake Superior
     GOALIE:   Garth Snow, Maine
 
     MOP (Most Outstanding Player):  Jim Montgomery, Maine
 
More awards (all subjective and unofficial, of course):
 
Most Valuable Player:  Garth Snow, Maine.  This is distinct from the Most
Outstanding Player, who was clearly Montgomery with his natural hat trick.
Without those three third-period goals, obviously, Maine doesn't win the
championship; however, no way do Montgomery, Kariya, et al get the chance to
free-wheel and set up those three goals against the stifling Lake Superior
defense without Snow's acting as a third defenseman, firing the puck up past
the blue line and giving the onrushing Lakers something else to worry about.
Several of the Maine fans I talked to, as well as some people here on the
list, mentioned that they wouldn't be surprised if something like this
happened:  Dunham starting, with Snow coming in if Maine was behind and
needed to jump-start the offense.  Not to mention Snow's performance between
the pipes during that third period.  He stopped all eight shots he faced,
including a couple great ones early on when he faced back-to-back 2-on-1
breaks.
 
Best Band:  A tough call here.  Maine's band was plenty loud and enthu-
siastic, but I'm going to have to ruffle some feathers here and go with BU
on technical merit.  Both earned plenty of points by getting the huge Wis-
consin contingent behind their respective teams by playing "On Wisconsin"
and the Budweiser song ("When you say Wis-consin...").
 
Worst Band:  Actually, this one should be Band That Suffered The Most By
Comparison, which would be Lake Superior's.  They were fine on their own --
it's just that they were nowhere near as loud or boisterous as the other
three.  However, the Laker band does get an honorable mention for the...
 
Off-Ice Moment of the Tournament:  With about four minutes left in the semi-
final game against BU, and with the Lakers up 5-1, the Lake Superior band
serenaded the Terriers and their fans with, "Oh where, oh where, has my
little dog gone?"  A great moment in band-taunting history, unless of course
you happened to be a BU fan.
 
Potential Dumb Move of the Tournament:  OK, most observers felt that the
Michigan-Maine game would determine the NC$$ champ, but it was probably not
a good idea for one of the coaches in that game to go on record as saying
that.  Especially when the possible final-round opponents he was "dissing"
were the defending national champions and the team that had given his squad
its only loss.  Maine coach Shawn Walsh was quoted as making that observa-
tion in a newspaper (I'm not sure which one... USA Today, maybe?), and it
might have been better left unsaid.  It turned out not to make any differ-
ence, but I'd be surprised if that quote didn't find its way to Jeff Jack-
son's bulletin board, good friends or no.  (This, I grant you, is a picky
criticism of a great college hockey coach -- however, games have been known
to turn on less than that)
 
Most Unbelievably Annoying Cheer:  You would think that "M...A...I..." etc.
every few minutes would have retired the trophy in this category -- but
there were two female Wisconsin fans a couple rows behind me who possessed
voices capable of pulverizing brick (no lie), and who insisted on trying to
do the Maine cheers even though they clearly hadn't learned them.  The most
irritating example was their consistent hollering of " M...A...I...N...E...
Goooooo, *Bears!* "  Nonononononono.
 
Even more off-ice notes:
 
I was, um, not happy when heavy fog at the Philadelphia airport caused a
delay in my commuter flight from Ithaca, to the point where I was going to
miss my connecting flight to Milwaukee.  I wound up being re-routed to
Pittsburgh and arriving in Milwaukee two and a half hours later than
originally planned (and awful close to game time).  But at least I got the
chance to have fun with a bunch of Maine fans who also took the flight from
Pittsburgh -- including Black Bear forward Eric Fenton's sister and her two-
year-old daughter (his niece).  Turns out his sister (whose name I promptly
forgot -- sorry, Eric!) is married to Shaun Hawkins, a former Cornell wide
receiver (Big Red fans may remember his fourth-down catch against Harvard a
few years ago) and now a student at the business school.  Anyway, Eric's
niece entertained us with the two cheers she knows:  "Go Eric!" and "Go
Blue!" (actually, "Go Ewic!" and "Go Boo!")  Soooo cute :-)  I also had a
brief chat with an ECAC official, ?? Chapin -- I think he's a ref.
 
Kudos to the pilot of the Pittsburgh-to-Milwaukee flight.  We got off to a
late start, but he somehow picked up 20 minutes on the flight west, so that
we actually landed ahead of schedule.  I suspect this fellow knew what a
planeload of college hockey fans could be like, especially if they were
going to miss any part of the first semifinal (of the hundred-and-some
people on that flight, there were maybe three who were NOT headed to the
Bradley Center).  Or maybe he was only told that he was carrying a planeload
of "*hockey* fans", which would be enough to scare the pants off anybody :-)
 
I'll add my thanks to Steve Manning and David Parter for organizing the
HOCKEY-L get-togethers at Bradley and at the Brown Bottle tavern.  'Twas a
lot of fun finding the few HOCKEY-L faces I already knew and meeting up with
the ones that I didn't.  The food and drink was excellent, too.  I think
somebody asked for a list of who was there -- I'll give it a try, though
there were several non-HOCKEY-L people whose names I don't know (shoulda
been taking notes), and I'm sure I'll forget a few HOCKEY-L folks as well.
Apologies in advance:
 
     Steve Manning            Jim Love
     Mark Grassl              James Bradshaw
     John Haeussler           Tony from BU
     Mike Machnik             Adam Bryant
     Heather Neely            Carol White
     Keith Instone            Charlie Shub
     David Parter
 
David's friend Wendy, a women's hockey player at Wisconsin, was also there,
as were Carol's friend, a couple of friends that Keith brought, and three
guys who all worked at the same company.  That's all I can remember, and I
know I'm short a few...
 
More thanks to:
 
     Rob Holmes, for selling me the tournament tix.
 
     Charlie Shub, for arranging to have me picked up at the airport and for
     driving me to my hotel after the second semifinal game.  Through
     Charlie, I also got to meet Notre Dame coach Ric Schafer (truly a class
     act), as well as Bill Ingraham, who has the distinction of having sons
     who play on this year's best Division I team (Cal) and this year's
     worst (Bob, at Air Force).
 
     Carol White, for the buttons.
 
     And the players and coaches of the teams involved for a terrific Phinal
     Phour tournament.
 
And finally, the new ECAC refrain:  "Okay, so Hockey East has won ONE
championship!"  :-)
--
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and probably '94
LET'S GO RED!!
"Men who sleep with daughters of their mothers-in-law -- on the next Geraldo."
-- "Shoe"