> It's too bad Peter said that.  I chalk it up to him putting every part of
> himself into this year's play and that game in particular.

Peter said what he felt, I don't see anything wrong with it.  He felt Maine
got screwed, and while I'm sure he doesn't entirely blame "Pi", his comments
are not without merit.  Personally, sometimes we are too careful not to say
things in this politically correct society that may rock the boat.

But as Tim Whitehead said, we did not lose the game because of the penalty,
but it certainly didn't help!!  :-)

We'll talk about this forever, but I would have rather seen a great play, or
a great shot win the game.. heck even a fluke play.. but at even strength.
I think back to the Maine/Michigan triple-overtime game in 1995.  The
referee put his whistle away and the players decided the game.  Some great
scoring chances were even negated in that game by non-call penalties.

But, we are talking about this because we didn't get the job done with 52
seconds left.  That is where the real blame lies.

> I only saw one "missed" call ...  and Coach Whitehead appeared to point
> it out to the ref ("Pi").  Maine was called for goalie interference,
> when the Maine player was clearly pushed into the goalie.  I though I
> saw Yeats head to the bench on the delayed call ...  glad nothing came
> of that!   (Yes, Pi kicked Shawn out of the game last year).

Yes, Yeats did head for the bench on the play.  I am glad you brought this
up, another amazing call.  It was so obvious a penalty on Minnesota, Yeats
headed to the bench.

> I certainly wished that no penalty was called, but the situation was
> different from all the holding and interference that Pi let go during
> the last 20 minutes or so of the game.  I don't think he missed anything
> (or I did, too).  He simply chose to "let them play" ...  until a
> dangerous (high chance of injury), albeit probably unintentionally so
> (Schutte had a superb game!), penalty occurred.

I think the play was a trip on Schutte, yes.  But what some people forget is
not long before that Hauser TRIPPED Lisak as he went to the corner to get
the puck.  To my recollection, no Gopher posessed the puck in the corner, so
this was a good offensive play that was taken away by Hauser (blatantly in
open ice).

I firmly believe that Pi should have let Schutte's trip go *as a result* of
not calling that play.

But he bent to the crowd or to the western bias, or whatever.  Was it a
penalty, of course, but it shouldn't have been called IMHO.

> It would seem to me that defensive zone faceoffs haven't been a
> particularly strong part of this teams' game.  Often, it seems we hope
> just for everything getting tied up and eventually getting the puck out
> of harm's way.  For a couple times late in the final game, the puck
> bounced in a most unfortunate way.

Yes, I'm sure this will be an easy area of focus this offseason.  We held
our collective breaths each end-zone faceoff.

> Someone mentioned a few days ago that these games are often won by a
> bounce more than will.  There was no shortage of will on the ice.
> Minnesota fans were, IMHO impatient and unfair ...  with their own team,
> until the late 3rd period goal that tied the game at 3. Maine fans were
> "wicked outnumbered", but wonderfully supportive during the entire
> tournament.

That may have been me.  I wrote that I thought Maine did not get much puck
luck, but not for lack of trying.

Peter Metcalf's will to win was most impressive.


>    All-tournament: Schutte, Liscak and Metcalf (UMN took all other honors,
>    including MVP, non-Minnesotian, Potulny)

No Darren Haydar on the All-Tournament team?  The UNH spin machine must not
be able to work that fast.

Incidently, I thought Jordan Leopold showed both on and off the ice this
weekend why he is very deserving of the Hobey Baker Award.

-Deron