I would say that it was something of a combination of all three, though
without the perjorative way in which your first explanation was stated.
 
1) BU played a VERY physical game.  The number one example of this was
LaCouture droppping Jason Botterill in the first period.  It was not
very often that I ever saw anyone flatten Botterill like that.  Morrison
was also hit hard.  I really think that this took Michigan by surprise
and they never really got their feet back under them.
 
There is nothing wrong with this.  I thought Mike Schmitt and crew did a
very good job, one of the best I saw out of a WCHA crew all year.  (For
crying out loud, if you're willing to call checking from behind in the
Final Four, why not during the regular season?)  They did let an awful
lot go, but were very consistent.  Had the game been done by an ECAC
crew (who might have called almost everything that was interference
rather than almost nothing) it might have been a different game.  This
might have drastically curtailed the extent to which BU was able to sit
on Brendan Morrison.  Then again, if he'd known a different crew was
coming, Parker might have come up with a different game plan.
 
2) Michigan didn't play at the top of their game.  I think that they
spent too much time talking up Minnesota during the regionals.  They
really had themselves convinced that they could lose to the Gophers and
once they did, they thought they just needed to show up to win on
Thursday.  (Note: I didn't just come up with this because I'm a Gopher
fan; I first heard this theory from a Michigan fan.)
 
One thing that happened to Michigan was that they were relying too much
on the first line.  The others sort of disappeared down the stretch.
Five of the seven goals against Minnesota were scored by Morrison,
Botterill & Muckalt.  I heard that at the CCHA Final Four, much the same
was true.  I don't think that the lines that Red came up with at the end
really worked very well.  Particularly, I thought Matt Herr looked a bit
lost.  There wasn't a third line that clicked like last year's
Hayes-Madden-Legg unit.
 
The most telling thing about the game against BU wasn't the lack of
scoring; BU did a fine job on that.  Michigan only took two penalties
for the game.  This is very unlike them.  Even with WCHA refs, I was
very surprised by this.  They usually play a physical game of their own
and are willing to take the penalties that this brings.  Also, no one
stepped up to get the team revved up.  In the final game last year, CC
really took over the momentum early in the second period.  At that
point, Warren Luhning started hitting anything that moved.  It cost him
two penalties in quick succession (one of which CC converted), but it
also brought Michigan back to life.  No one (and I would have picked
Luhning as the most likely again) stepped up to do this against BU.
 
3) BU came out for this game sky high.  They knocked the Wolverines on
the butts early and never let up.  They sat on the first line (sometimes
literally) and didn't let them generated.  They did a good job on the
other lines as well.
 
Someone has expressed the opinion that Chris Drury didn't belong on the
all-tournament team.  That person didn't watch this game closely enough.
 Every time I looked up, Drury was the guy making Morrison's life
miserable.  His defense was unreal.  It says something that Parker took
far and away his top scorer and used him primarily to play defense.
Okay, so Drury tanked the shot on several odd-man rushes.  I was very
pleased that those who put together the all-tournament team recognized
him for the defense he played.
 
In the end, if I had to pick a number one reason for the game's outcome,
I'd cite a combination of #1 & #3 (making #1 a subset of #3).  Boy, did
BU play well.  As someone who came into the weekend hoping Michigan
would repeat, I take a bit of solace that BU had to play so well to win
by one goal.
 
As to your last question, I came into the game rooting for CC, but
thinking that a Tiger victory was unlikely.  Yes, they didn't play well,
but I had watching North Dakota dismantle them almost this decisively in
the WCHA semi-final.  UND was just a better team.
 
J. Michel Neal
 
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