Well, an amazing feat occurred in the Nation's Capital this weekend: We got to see all eight games!!!!!! Ch. 53 came through and showed them. Here are the scores and my general impressions of the games. Wisconsin 6, Western Michigan 3 ------------------------------- I only got to see the last period of this game but it seemed that WMU was down and out. They looked tired and demoralized in the 3rd. New Hampshire 2, RPI 0 ---------------------- Only one word for this game: CHOKE! The game was fast with both sides showing blazing speed up and down the ice. RPI should have won this game, they had a number of chances where Cavicchi was out of position and they missed the net! UNH capitalized on their chances and came away with a shutout even though they were outshot by RPI (I think). Lake Superior 6, Northeastern 5, OT ----------------------------------- Where did Northeastern come from? For a team that "should not have been in the tournament," they played like a phinal phour team. LSSU looked slow and Lacher was unimpressive. In the 3rd period, a Northeastern goal was waved off. From the replay, it was a goal. The entire puck did cross the line, however, Lacher's glove blocked the view of the goal judge and the ref was way out of position. Had the goal counted, Northeastern would have won the game. OT lasted all of 15 seconds as LSSU stuffed the puck through the pads of the Northeastern goalie. From the replay, it looked like it banked off the right leg pad and trickled into the goal. Boston University 4, Wisconsin 1 -------------------------------- I was very disappointed in Wisconsin. They were very chippy and did a lot of hitting after the whistle. There were a lot of matching penalties called because BU would retaliate. BU looked very good - what a defense!!!! BU should have no problem making it to the final. Mass-Lowell 4, Michigan State 3 ------------------------------- Definitely one of the best games of the weekend. MSU was playing well but Mass-Lowell was not playing like a3 seed. I was very impressed by the stick handling of Roloson. A number of times, he came out of the crease and made a good pass up the ice. Lowell has a great penalty killing unit but they seem to take too many cheap penalties. This will come back to bite them if they get to the phinal phour. MSU pulled Buzak with 45 seconds left and Lowell shut them down. Most of the play was at center ice even with the extra man. Lowell was out shot in this game 27-17. Havard 7, New Hampshire 1 ------------------------- The score says it all. It was 2-0 after one and 2-1 after two. Harvard scored five times in the third to put the game away. The first and second periods were a little slow but Harvard showed their speed in the third. New Hampshire played a full set of seniors for the last minute of the game, I think this was a great gesture. Lake Superior 5, Michigan 4, OT ------------------------------- Wow!! LSSU dominated the first period. An unusual delay of game penalty occurred at 18:01 of the first. Lacher covered the puck beyond the face off circles and was called for the delay. Michigan came back in the second period and the game went into the third tied at 4. The third period was really fast but there were few shots and no goals. The refs swallowed their whistles in the last ten minutes of the game. One of the announcers made the point that "if it does not affect a scoring drive, there will not be a penalty." He was absolutely right as there were a number of holds, hooks, and trips away from the puck without penalties. About 2 minutes into OT, Aldridge found the puck at the point a put it past an unscreened Shields who never touched it. Minnesota 2, Mass-Lowell 1, 2OT ------------------------------- A really defensive contest. Lowell scored in the first period and that was all the scoring until 14:30 of the third when Minnesota tied it up. The Lowell penalty killing is awesome but their offense is not as effective. Dan Woog, Coach Woog's son, separated his shoulder in the second or early third period and was out for the rest of the game. In the third period, Minnesota had out shot Lowell 13-1 at the time of the goal. During the first OT, McHugh of Minnesota was checked into the boards, head first. He lay on the ice for quite a while as the trainer checked him out. He left the ice under his own power. There was no penalty and the replay showed that it was definitely a check from behind and should have been called. Minnesota won this game during the second OT on a shot from Jeff Nielson. These were 20 minute overtimes. The goal was around the ten or eleven minute mark and the announcers called it the sixth longest game in Division I history but they did not give an official time of the final goal. Refs ---- I usually don't say anything about the refing in games but I have to mention two points. Gallager is useless. He refed the BU-Wisconsin game and he was calling matching penalties on everything. The refs in the LSSU-Michigan game also deserve special attention. I felt that their attitude toward penalties in a tie game late in the third and during overtime was absolutely terrible. Hey guys, if it is a penalty in the first, it is a penalty in the third! Announcers ---------- I was pretty impressed by the announcers for both the East and West games. They seemed knowledgable about the game and the teams. The announcers at the Eastern regionals noted (after the Harvard game) that 6 of 6 teams that got byes this year and last year, made the phinal phour. I will have to check to see if this is correct (of course LSSU broke the streak). He seemed very much against the byes in the first round but he did not offer any suggestions. Coverage -------- The Channel 53 coverage was great. According to them, they were the only station to show all eight games. The only annoying part was that instead of commercials, they were doing a pledge drive to raise the $16,000 it cost them to televise the games (they are a PBS station). The result of this was that I could not see any of the interviews, post game shows, or in between period commentary. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Eric Maiwald maiwald at dockmaster.ncsc.mil Citicorp Go, Go, Go, You, Red, Red, Red!!! Reston, VA RPI '87 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PGP 2.3a Keys Available on Request ---(1)---