It was great to finally get to see Hobey Baker Rink, the memorabilia, and to meet fellow HOCKEY-L-er Chris Dietrich! Baker Rink is a fine place to view college hockey. Even with the University students away on holiday, the Tiger supporters and community filled the stands. The game was obviously being treated as an ""event" by both teams, but it was a spirited game. A high point was a penalty shot by Princeton. Spartak returned their top goalie to the crease for the (unsuccessful) shot. Speaking of penalties, the referees were Melanson and Bunyan ... a very strange pairing in my book, since Ned Bunyan will call *any* funny stuff while John Melanson calls only the most flagrant and important to the play penalties. Each is an OK style, but the pairing made for a lot of frustrated players (especially Spartak). Spartak was not as good as the teams that traveled from the USSR in previous years, but the players were larger and more talented than those from the hustling Princeton team. An acquaintance of mine here at Princeton made the arrangements for the Russian visit. Turned out there were lots of problems that I won't bore you with, but perhaps an interesting point was that the arrangement called for $4000 being given to the Moscow team ... and it had to be in CASH! It was fun to watch the cruising and circling Russians in contrast to the stop-and-start Tigers. I love the way Spartak was not afraid to retreat into their own zone to start their rush down ice: US teams could learn a lot! Holiday cheers, Wayne (Princeton fans dress better than Maine fans) Smith The College Hockey Discussion List administrator Systems Group - CAPS BITNET/CREN: wts@maine University of Maine System internet: [log in to unmask] P.S. Anyone know the other Spartak scores (Plattsburgh & Providence); they played BC to an 8-8 tie, as was probably reported earlier on HOCKEY-L.