Ahh - what a weekend! Am I ever glad I have a satellite hookup - got to watch every game start to end. First, the difference in play between large and small ice sheets is very interesting, especially watching it back to back like that. I think I prefer the Olympic size sheet for the style of hockey it engenders. BC really impressed me - and Wisconsin may have lost at least partly because of the big sheet. On a small rink they may have been able to play a body-check game which, given the long game with Michigan State the night before for BC, might have slowed BC down enough for WI to win. I try not to get too hung up on results of sporting events - its supposed to be fun, after all - but have to admit it was very disappointing to see WI lose. [They were also my pick to go all the way which pretty much destroys all chances I might have had in the contest, too]. Its not that the Badgers played poorly so much as they ran into a hot goalie. I think Melanson is one of the best in the country, but he just had an average night in the pipes. C'est la vie. In that BC-WI game, I (probably the only one in the entire country) have to question the third goal. It sure looked to me like the BC player was backing into the crease and pulled the puck in after himself. I know there was a WI defender on his back, but it was the charge by the BC player that put him there. Hence, I though it should be no goal. No one else saw it that way, though. Clay Satow wrote concerning the butt ending incident in Maine-UMich: ===================== Here's what I saw: The puck was in the Michigan end. Michigan had Comrie "cherry picking" at center ice. Larose was covering him, and they were well away from the play. Larose butt-ended Comrie in the ribs. Comrie was stunned and went down. The puck came out of the Michigan end, to the side of the rink opposite where the incident took place. Larose went to the puck, and Comrie got up and went after Larose, across the ice. That precipitated the scrum along the boards that I think Michael is referring to. When the butt end happened, my 16 year old son and I turned to each other and simultaneously said, incredulously "Did you see what he DID?" It was not a really bad butt end (you don't get up from an really bad one), but a clear butt end nevertheless. I didn't see what, if anything, led up to it. ==================== Thanks for the clarification. The announcers on TV had trouble seeing the butt ending because all they replayed was the scrum on the boards where nothing much happened. Well, back to the grind stone till the 6th. Tom Rowe [log in to unmask] ==================================== Home of Division 3 National Champion Pointers 89, 90, 91 & 93 and National Runners Up 92 & 98 ==================================== HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.