FORFEITS * The Globe reports that the decision by the HE ADs to award the points to PC was unanimous. That was said by Merrimack AD Bob DeGregorio through the Merrimack sports information office, but the Globe's Bob Monahan says an anonymous AD said there was one dissenter but that it was agreed to make the decision officially unanimous. * Northeastern coach Ben Smith did not agree with awarding the points to PC. * BC coach Steve Cedorchuk said he wished *his* team had played Maine the first three games. :-) But it does point out the problem with the situation...BU's Jack Parker said it would have been easy had Maine's three wins in question come over three different teams. All above info from an article in today's (2/8/94) Boston Globe. I have updated the appropriate files in the archives given the decision. To see the new HE standings (and those of the other conferences), send mail to [log in to unmask] and use the command GET 9394CONF STAND . I have not adjusted the GF-GA since stats from the games still count. I believe the official score is now 1-0 PC for all three games, but I have left the scores in the archives as is with a note that the games were forfeited to PC. * Finally, for those upset about PC getting the points...the strongest argument for them getting the pts is that if there's a forfeit loss, someone has to get the wins. It's always been done this way. Precedent was on the side of the Friars. It just so happened that all three games Tory played in were wins over PC. It should not surprise anyone that PC ended up with the points, although there was apparently some concern about this happening. BEANPOT comments BC 5, NU 4 (2 ot) * WEEI reported this morning that this was the second longest Beanpot game ever (76:52) and that there was a game about 30 years ago that went into 3 OTs. I'd like to hear the details of this if anyone knows (mainly how long timewise) because if it was over 80:00, it belongs in the archives' list of longest games. * Game could have gone either way. BC had several great chances in the first ten minute OT, and Mike Veisor was superb. NU had the better of the play in the second OT, but it was Greg Taylor who stood strong. The winner was a quick play deep in the NU zone, but you could see it develop as NU didn't have everyone covered. NU had a great chance in the first OT when a shot went off the post and the goal light came on briefly. * NU looked to be in trouble when G Todd Reynolds, who had been playing well, suddenly suffered back spasms in the second and fell to the ice. Trainer Ben Miller had to come out and Reynolds was helped off, Veisor coming in to replace him. Veisor was shaky early on and perhaps allowed two bad goals, but with the way he played great in OT, I don't think this was necessarily the difference. * WEEI's Dale Arnold commented this morning that with Reynolds propped up in the runway the rest of the game so he could see what was going on, BU coach Jack Parker came up, put his arm around him and said something to console him at having had to come out like that. I thought that was a classy thing to do and deserves mention with all the bashing Parker takes here and elsewhere. * BC played about as well as they have played this year and more importantly, got NU to play into their hands. The smaller ice surface worked to BC's advantage, much as it did earlier this year when BC beat NU at Matthews. NU is the better skating team but had trouble putting plays together for much of the game due to BC's physical presence. * Taylor was getting raves this morning on WEEI, but I thought BC should have won in regulation if not for 2 bad goals he allowed, one from almost parallel to the net short side. I do think he is good and he has to be with BC's inexperienced defense, but after seeing Merrimack's Martin Legault outplay him twice head to head and several other games where Taylor has seemed to suffer lapses and allow very bad goals (loss to NU), I think Legault gets the nod right now for All-Rookie Team goalie (haven't seen enough of Maine's Marsh and Allison to compare them with Legault yet). Legault has allowed maybe a handful of bad goals all *season* while usually seing 40+ shots a night; his save % is still something like 5th highest in the league overall and best among rookies. OK, enough plugging him; I know BC is pushing Taylor hard, so I wanted to give Legault his due. Both goalies are good ones, but it will be a crime if the publicity Taylor gets out of this causes Legault to be overlooked. Especially if he beats Taylor for a third straight time Friday night. * Finally, credit BC coach Steve Cedorchuk and congrats to him for a big win. First, he called a key timeout in the 2nd OT with NU swarming and this seemed to allow his players to settle down a bit. Second, with the way BC has really struggled the last two years since he took over, this is probably the biggest win of his short tenure at the Heights. Although, a win next Monday would be even bigger... HARVARD 4, BU 2 * Holy cow. Sure, BU was missing two of its three best defensemen in Kaj Linna and Chris O'Sullivan, and forced to play a few guys on the blueline who wouldn't normally see time. And this affected BU's ability to develop a consistent offensive attack, since Brennan was the only D able to make the breakout work effectively. But I still didn't expect Harvard to dominate this game the way they did. BU only had, I think, 9 shots through two periods to Harvard's 27 or so. * Harvard might be playing inconsistently this season from the recent comments of others here, but they looked like national title contenders last night. They played the physical game right with BU for the whole game, but had the clear edge in speed and play development. And at least two of their goals came when Harvard players outworked Terriers in the corners. * Harvard goalie Tripp Tracy looked shaky enough and untested through the first two periods that I thought that if BU could get an attack going in the third, they could come back to win. But BU doesn't have the kind of offensive talent this year that it has had in the past, and the best chances in the first five min were from Grier and (Pomichter?), who both shot the puck wide from in close. *On the BU end, McKersie didn't play badly at all. His team was getting outplayed through two periods and outshot by a 3 to 1 margin, but he kept them in it. *Right after I mentioned that I thought Harvard's Steve Martins was a player to watch, he went in and scored a nifty goal. What Harvard has that I'm not sure BU has, is a bunch of finishers. Neither team has forwards of the caliber of McEachern, Amonte, Tkachuk, Sacco (BU) or MacDonald, Bourbeau, Ciavaglia, Drury (Harvard). But Harvard's forwards finish. At least, that was the difference last night, because even with the huge shot differential, BU still had enough good chances that they could have won if they'd scored on a few of them. *Harvard beats BU in the Beanpot for the second straight year. Who said Harvard was overrated? Let's look at the blemishes on their 13-3-2 record: losses at Colgate (7-6), at RPI (4-3), and at Minnesota-Duluth (3-0). Duluth is in 8th in the WCHA, but that may be the toughest league in the country this season. Colgate has played well at times, and we know about RPI. Ties with Brown (3-3) and Vermont (4-4), both at home. As for wins, BU is the biggest, but I think wins at Brown (5-4 ot) and over Clarkson (7-5) also deserve mention. Harvard's biggest problem is it hasn't and won't play many teams among the best in the country. That may hurt them in the NC$$s, both in terms of seeding and performance. But the team I saw last night deserves to be considered among the 3-4 best in the nation, no doubt. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93 <<<<< Color Voice of the (12-14-2) Merrimack Warriors WCCM 800 AM >>>>>