This past weekend was perhaps one of the highlights of this semester since I
went to Lake Placid to enjoy a weekend of hockey in that lovely and charming
town.  Despite RPI's losses in which they showed that inexperience that
everyone has been telling me about all year, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and
certainly had fun watching all that hockey.  Incidentally, I think Lake Placid
is a great little town (even though I got a parking ticket :-().  But right
now I'm a bit perturbed.
 
It began on Saturday night as I watched the championship game between Clarkson
University, who I honestly thought would be there, and Brown, who I NEVER
expected to beat Harvard (sorry Harvard fans, but can you say choke :-)).  As
I watched the game I wondered who this guy Finch was who was playing net for
Brown.  I hadn't heard anything about him before and I don't remember him from
when Brown visited the Field House back in February.  But the more I watched,
the more impressed I was.  In the first period alone he turned aside 18 shots,
(no that's not a typo) many of which were spectacular.  In fact, several times
his defense left him and he had to come up big to keep Brown in the game.
 
In the second period, he was equally impressive turning aside 10 of 11 shots.
The only one he missed was actually a "fluke" (before I catch s*** for this,
remember that it has been said that 90% of hockey goals are "flukes").  It
came on a shot that actually was a lot softer than intended.  The Clarkson
player (I believe it was #10, Toumainen) was moving across the left circle
and simply directed the loose puck towards the net, but actually wiffed and it
didn't have much speed as it went towards the goal.  Finch kicked his foot
out trying to block it with his skate but he overextended and the puck went
under his foot and into the net.
 
Meanwhile, on the other end, Rogles certainly was playing solid but he didn't
face ANY tough shots.  Brown obviously thought that his glove was weak and
every shot was up into the top right corner, Rogles' glove side.  And every
time it came, Rogles caught it.  I don't want to downplay Rogles' effort, but
Brown simply couldn't get past the solid Clarkson defense and when they did
they didn't manage to put a hard shot on net.  And as the game went on it
got even worse for Brown as Clarkson simply dominated the neutral zone and
kept the Bears out of the attacking zone.
 
In the third period Finch continued his excellent play and kept it close down
the stretch.  In fact, in the last five minutes he faced several tough shots
including one that he just kicked his leg out on to keep it from entering the
net.  If it hadn't been for O'Brien's stupid mistake, Brown might have only
been down by one goal and then gone into OT when they tied it up on an
excellent effort by their team with the goalie pulled.  Clarkson managed to
get an empty netter with about 4 seconds left to finish it off.
 
So why am I pissed?  If it isn't obvious by now, it's because I don't think
Rogles deserved the MVP and more importantly, I think it should have gone to
Finch of Brown.  If it hadn't been for Finch, Brown would never have even had
a shot.  But as it was, Finch kept that game from becoming a blowout and if it
hadn't been for one silly mistake, it could have been an OT game.  Clarkson,
on the other hand, didn't have a standout.  They played solidly as a team.
In fact, I think Clarkson put in one of the best team efforts I've ever seen,
or at least one of the best in a long time.  But no one on that team stood
out as an MVP, certainly not Rogles.
 
I can understand Rogles getting the MVP for his play over TWO games, but even
so, what about Finch??  He played a great game against Harvard and then a
simply dazzling one against the Golden Knights.  And yet, the media, in their
infinite wisdom, felt that someone on the winning team HAD to get the MVP (or
maybe I'm wrong and it's actually a rule somewhere.  Something like "Following
the championship game, a Most Valuable Player (MVP) shall be chosen from the
winning team".  If that is the case, someone please point it out to me and I'll
shutup.).  Of course, the obvious choice, by virtue of the score, would be
Rogles if an MVP had to be chosen from the winning team.
 
Those of you who were around me after that game know how upset I was.  Mostly
because I love the sport of hockey and I hate it when the media does something
so stupid as what they did.  Even though Brown might not have played
championship hockey on Saturday night, they kept it close thanks to Finch and
I'm sure he would have received some consolation if he had received the MVP.
I know some of you Clarkson fans might disagree, but then again people usually
do disagree with me. :-)
 
In any event, congrats again to Clarkson and now it's on to the NC$$ tourney.
Can't wait for that one!!
 
--Dan
 
 
 
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Daniel Orchard-Hays        Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute             '95
"Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin."
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