* It's been a long time since I felt as devastated at watching a team lose a game as with Lowell's double OT loss to Minnesota today. The Chiefs held Minnesota scoreless for the first 54:27, then didn't allow a goal for another 35:02. But their one goal wasn't enough. Dwayne Roloson played an incredible game, and he was often the last line of defense with his teammates skating tired and trying to hold on. Of course, with Minnesota dominating the third period and OTs, I can imagine how they would have felt if they had been on the short end instead. It was too bad there had to be a winner. It wasn't a classic game like a BU-NMU, but when a game gets to be as long as this one was, it's still one you enjoy watching. I am not sure, but I think Lowell had their fourth line out when the GWG was scored. Lowell had just killed off a bench minor for too many men (replay was from a poor angle so we couldn't see how close it was), and I suspect Bruce Crowder wanted to get his penalty killers some rest before sending them out on their regular shifts. Not casting blame, just an observation. Nielsen's winner was a good goal. He came up ice on a 2x1 and took the shot from about 15 feet out, beating Roloson high to the glove side. Roloson didn't give much, but Nielsen is a sniper (29 goals) and fired a perfect shot - the only way it seemed the Gophers would beat Rollie tonight. The Chiefs did themselves and their fans proud. Let's hope they get another crack at it sometime soon. * Unofficially, I believe the winner came at 9:29 of the second OT. The game is the 7th longest DivI game ever - not 6th as was announced on tv. I suspect the list they were working from did not include the BC-UNH game in the HE quarterfinals which was longer. * There's no way the Knick had only a couple thousand for the first game Saturday night. The announced attendance of 9,675 sounds about right, since BU fans made up most of the crowd. Many of them had to leave after BU won since the BU fan busses were apparently leaving right away. * The Albany Times Union's coverage left something to be desired. Harvard's 7-1 win over UNH made the front page of the Sunday sports section, but Bob Croce started out his article as follows: "Even though RPI's hockey team found itself uninvited to the big Knick house party Saturday night, in a way one of its graduates stood as a token representative." He went on to spend 9 paragraphs talking about the only person from either Harvard or UNH who had a connection to RPI, Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni - an RPI grad. It was not until the 10th paragraph until we got even a mention of any of the players in the game. * The ATU also had the following in its "Notebook": "Although it really didn't do them much good, considering the final score, Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer said his players derived some motivation from some comments two BU players made to a Wisconsin newspaper. "The Terriers insisted that they would have good success against the Badgers, because Wisconsin played undisciplined hockey. "'I didn't think our opponent respected us as a team after reading some of the comments in the paper today,' Sauer said. 'I hope they respect us now. In the first period, I thought we played them nose to nose.'" (end) Well, while it wasn't a good idea for the BU players to make statements like that to the press, it was ironic that what they said turned out to be true Saturday night. When the Badgers fell behind, they started taking a number of foolish, almost goon-like penalties that were probably designed to draw a reaction from BU. But to my surprise and to BU's credit, BU uncharacteristically did not respond in kind and usually skated away. From what I heard after the game, it sounded like BU expected this and their game plan was to stay out of the scraps. A notable is that BU captain Doug Friedman did not take a single penalty while assisting on one goal, and he is a player whose leadership I had questioned because of his tendency to be involved in altercations. Against Wisconsin, he was most certainly a leader of the best kind, and his teammates followed. The BU team defense was stifling. BU allowed Wisconsin, a team with two 60-point scorers, only 14 shots in the entire game - 7 over the final two periods. * I never did see the Northeastern goal that was disallowed against LSSU, but it sounded as though it was obviously in from all accounts I've heard. If so, that is too bad. The Huskies had to have gained some respect after some people asked why they even received a bid. Consider how many times a team has scored 5 (or in this case, 6) goals on Lacher this season. * I considered justice to have been served after the two "home" teams, MSU and RPI, each lost their opening games. I certainly don't have anything against either team and it isn't their fault that they ended up at home while other teams had to travel. But if there is a change that needs to be made in bracketing for next season, it is to stop declaring that the "home" teams get to play at home as long as they just make the tourney. How much of an effect did it really have on attendance? At the Knick, there certainly was a strong RPI contingent Friday night, no doubt about that. But Saturday, there were still almost 10,000 and that was without most of the RPI fans who were there Friday. Meanwhile, while I don't know about the LSSU-Michigan crowd Sunday, there seemed to be perhaps 3000 for Lowell-Minnesota. That's still not a bad turnout, but overall, I think last year's regionals drew more or weren't off by much in terms of total attendance. About the only way it could have been significantly improved would have been to overturn the victories by UNH and Lowell so the host teams could play another game. :-) * RPI: back at the beginning of the season we talked about how RPI needed to find some scoring if its dreams for a national title were going to come true. The Engineers sure did pick things up as they were one of the highest scoring teams in the nation during the season. But it was ironic that when it came down to it, in the two biggest games of the year, RPI wasn't able to score a goal. They had their chances both nights, but could not finish. Neil Little played a great game in net, and without him the score could have been 5 or 6-0. * Harvard: a team that seems to be on a mission. UNH had 22 shots, but Tracy was not tested. McCann was outstanding, both on D and playing up front as a third pointman on the potent power play, and maybe in St Paul he'll finally get some real national recognition. Martins and Farrell seemed light years ahead of UNH in terms of speed and playmaking ability - actually, so did most of Harvard. But somehow UNH hung in there until Harvard extended its lead to 2 at 6:44 of the third. I think that goal broke the back of UNH, who was playing for that elusive tying goal (and after that, who knows what could have happened). Instead, Harvard's goal opened the floodgates (3 goals in 3:07) and Cavicchi, who had played well, was pulled for Heinke with the game out of reach. * The final four contingent of BU, Minnesota, Harvard, and LSSU sets up all sorts of interesting matchups. BU has a tough feat ahead in attempting to beat Minnesota at home (effectively). Harvard-LSSU is a rematch of the 1989 NC$$ quarterfinals - the year in which Harvard won it all. Minnesota fans would love to gain revenge on Harvard in the building where the Crimson spoiled their party. BU would love revenge on either LSSU (for last season's semifinal loss in Milwaukee) or Harvard (for the semifinal Beanpot loss this February), especially since Harvard posted that win when BU was missing two key defensemen. And Minnesota would like another shot at an LSSU team that took two overtimes to beat them in the championship of the Mariucci Classic in January. I didn't think BU would get by Wisconsin, but now that they have, I think they can beat Minnesota despite the home crowd advantage the Gophers will enjoy. BU has the better offense and defense, and Minnesota will need its best goaltending performance of the season (any word on who will start? I'd think Callinan). BU will need to play disciplined as it did against Wisconsin. Minnesota will need to generate offense earlier in the game and cash in on what are likely to be the few chances they'll get. If BU gets ahead by a couple, it will be next to impossible to come back. Harvard may be the most well-rounded team of the four. The Crimson are certainly the fastest of the four, but more importantly, they have shown an ability to create plays and control the puck while outskating the opponent. Harvard's power play is superb, and LSSU will have to keep it off the ice as much as possible. In all, we're looking forward to an exciting three games. If anything, I am most disappointed that Lowell and Michigan are not there, but the matchups are intriguing enough that I know I'll still enjoy it. Best of luck to everyone participating and making the trip. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93