Well, folks, with four overtime games and two other one-goal affairs, the ECAC East and West quarterfinals was the place to go for college hockey excitement on Tuesday night. Wish I had more details, but here are the results: ECAC East: (1) Middlebury 4, (8) Bowdoin 3 (OT) (2) Babson 3, (7) AIC 2 (OT) (3) Salem State 8, (6) UConn 7 (OT) (5) Williams 3, (4) UMass-Boston 2 ECAC West: (1) Mercyhurst 5, (8) Cortland State 2 (2) Elmira 7, (7) Oswego State 6 (OT) (3) Geneseo State 6, (6) Fredonia State 5 (4) RIT 6, (5) Union 3 Notes on the Elmira game: Elmira 7, Oswego State 6 (OT) In their two meetings in the regular season, Elmira had beaten Oswego by a combined score of 20-1, and they had outscored the Lakers by a 38-4 margin over their last five games, so you can't blame the Soaring Eagles for looking past their quarterfinal opponent last night. Elmira played sloppily and came very close to handing the game to Oswego. In the first period alone, the Lakers fought back to tie the score three times, as Elmira fell victim to a host of giveaways and to a solid Oswego forecheck. Things looked to be going Elmira's way when Joey Spinelli notched his team-leading 32nd goal just 1:09 into the contest, but Jim Thomas drew Oswego even with a power-play tally at the 3:55 mark. Elmira's Bob McGee made it 2-1 at 12:16, but Thomas struck again two minutes later. Then the Soaring Eagles' Tom Moses and the Lakers' Mark Carpenter traded goals (Carpenter scoring with 55 seconds left in the period) to leave the score tied at 3-3. It looked like that was how the period would end, but with one second left, McGee corraled a rebound off the back boards (after the Oswego defense, perhaps thinking the clock had run out, failed to play the puck) and punched a shot past Oswego goalie Rob Moore. Despite the lead, Elmira coach Glenn Thomaris replaced goalie Tom O'Brien (eight saves in the first) with little-used backup Bob Delori- miere at the start of the second period. The teams seemed to calm down a bit, as only one goal was scored in the second, by Greg Moore at the 11:05 mark to put Elmira up 5-3. However, a pair of giveaways in the Elmira end allowed Oswego to score goals 16 seconds apart in the third period to tie the game once again. John Schierbaum intercepted a clearing pass and fired a 20-foot slapshot over the glove of Delori- miere 4:15 into the period. Then, on what looked like an instant replay, it was Rob Madia's turn to pick up a bad Elmira pass and score on a 20-footer. The Soaring Eagles had barely recovered from this when they were hit with a bench minor a couple minutes later for too many men on the ice, and the Lakers took a 6-5 lead just 14 seconds into the resulting power play, on a goal by Gregg Pechmann. Ironically, Oswego had six skaters on the ice later in the period for about 30 seconds, and the officials never detected it. Apparently, shaky refereeing is not limited to Division I. Scott Doherty tied the score for Elmira at the 10:03 mark, redirecting Spinelli's blast behind Rob Moore. The Soaring Eagles then had several opportunities to score the game-winner in regulation, but they couldn't convert. However, it took Elmira only 58 seconds of the extra period to settle the issue. Mike McNamara's shot bounced off an Oswego defenseman's shin pad and rolled over to Bobby Holmes, who backhanded the puck into the net. Rob Moore made 30 saves for the Lakers, while Delorimiere stopped 31 shots in his just-over-two periods of work. In both leagues, the Final Four takes place at the home rink of the highest remaining seed, if that rink is useable. The Mercyhurst facility is not available this weekend, so the ECAC West semifinal and final games are expected to take place at Elmira. The ECAC East's Final Four will likely happen at Middlebury. Although the sites have not been announced, the pairings for the semifinals in each league are set, and the games will be played Friday night. In the ECAC East, Babson will meet Salem State and Middlebury will take on Williams, while in the West, Elmira faces off against Geneseo State and Mercyhurst plays RIT. Both leagues' championship games will take place on Saturday. Bill Fenwick Cornell '86 LET'S GO RED!! "I want to know one thing about those wanted posters in the post office: why didn't they hold onto the guy when they were taking his picture?" -- Jerry Seinfeld