FROM THE MINNESOTA DAILY SPECIAL SATURDAY EDITION: **************************** _______________________________________________________________________________ EAST POWERS PAST WEST First win since '87 puts them in final. The East, which hadn't won a hockey game in the Olympic Festival since 1987, picked an inoportune time to win Friday night, pounding the West 6-2. In the process, they knocked the South from the gold medal game and inserted themselves. Led by former Anoka (Mn) star Mike Vukonich, the East dominated from start to finish, outshooting the west 49-24 and picking up 30 shots in the first 30 minutes of play. Because of tie-breaking rules, the East had to beat the West by three or more goals to advance to the gold medal game tonight, but the odds seemed to be in the West's favor. So much so, in fact, that after thursday night's press conference, North coach Shawn Walsh told South coach Brad Buetow, "I'll see you Saturday." The win by the East (1-1-1) moves them into tonight's gold medal game against the favored North (3-0). The West (0-3)will take on the South (1-1-1) in the bronze medal game beginning at 1:00 PM (CST). Vukonich, who will be a senior at Harvard this fall, scored twice and added an assist to lead coach Joe Marsh's team. His efforts included a flashy shorthanded breakaway goal that put the East up for good at 3-2 in the first period. The West, comprised of players aged 19 and under, clearly were out- played throughout and seemed to grow frustrated as the game went on. The East poured it on from the start, pounding Denver University goalie Bryan Schoen with 20 shots in the first period. Schoen made the save of the tournament less than two minutes into the game when Cory Laylin fired point blank from the slot and Schoen gloved the puck. But the young West defensemen bent and finally broke when Mark Karpen flipped a backhander past Schoen for a 1-0 lead. The end was not far away. The West, which has scored only seven goals in three tournament games, tied the game on Wisconsin freshman Dan Plante's goal minutes later. Plante, not recognized as a top scorer, netted both West goals giving him three for the tournament. West caoch Mike Eaves, his team trailing 3-2, elected to insert Gopher goaltender Tom Newman into the game at the beginning of the second period, but Newman couldn't hold off the East's constant attacks. PERSONAL NOTE: this article does not tell the whole story why Schoen was replaced with Newman. Towards the end of the first period there was a sort of confrontation in the crease in front of Schoen. A West player pushed an East player on top of (or into) Schoen. Schoen became very upset and wanted a penalty or something because of the man-in-the-crease. He went so far as to skate after the player yelling so loud that we could hear him in row 14!!! The Ref listened but was having no nonsense, so play resumed. At the end of the period, Schoen again approached the Ref to protest and was given a 10 minute misconduct penalty. In my opinion Schoen was benched by the coach for being very unsporstmanlike. Even though he was not playing, another player sat in the box for the penalty. Which seemed really ridiculous, because it put the West a player short when it didn't need to. Anyway, I have a question.... Shouldn't the goalie have sat in the box himself??? I know they usually don't, but for a misconduct penalty, it would seem appropriate to me. I'll be at the gold medal game tonight so look for a report on Monday. Carol W. U of M.