HE coffers take another financial blow as Maine is knocked out of the finals. Having already lost UNH, this left only BU with a mega-fan contingent. Had UML beaten BU, it might not have been remembered as "The Last Final in the Garden" or "The Underdog Final" but rather as "The Year Hockey East Staged a Finals and No One Showed Up". :-) The following are without benefit of seeing the game on tape. Just my live reactions. Providence-Maine ---------------- "Weak-side post" was the story of this game. During the fateful and deciding second period four of the five PC goals were scored on passes to uncovered players on the weak side post. Only on the backhanded wraparound for the third goal did Allison have a chance. I know I'm showing my partiality to my favorite PC player (by far) Chad Quennville, but I'd have put him as number one star. Although Kramer did a great job of finishing, Quennville's work to create those opportunities was IMO more impressive than Kramer's finishes. Not knocking Kramer, I'd have simply flip-flopped him and Quennville as number 1 and 3 stars. Of course, just looking at stats rather than the game itself Kramer would be the obvious number 1 star. But Quennville was responsible for most of PC's chances all night, including the lopsided and scoreless first period. BU-UML ------ Craig Lindsey as number three star along with compliments from Crowder? I don't get it. IMO UML outplayed BU by a little in the first two periods before getting totally outplayed in the third. But the two keys were consistent with the rest of UML's season: They got outgoaltended and they had more penalties. The team had among the worst goaltending in HE for the regular season and also led HE in penalty minutes. I wasn't crazy about either of the first two BU goals (maybe a stronger goalie wouldn't have given the rebound on the first goal and the second goal seemed a rather poor angle shot to go in, but those things will happen and I'll credit BU with the skill level to create those goals). However, on the third goal, the UML defenseman seemed to have Bates reasonably tied up (though not totally) so Bates did not get a strong shot off yet Lindsey took forever getting side-to-side. That was the one critical goal that I have the most trouble with. The final goal Lindsey had no chance on. I'm not saying that Lindsey was horrible. He's certainly had worse games this year. (Backhanded compliment) But I just don't see him as the number three star. As for the penalties, UML led HE in penalties during the regular season and the two on Mahoney and Campbell late in the third gave UML no chance whatsoever to come back. Personally, I didn't see the Mahoney one and the Campbell one looked like he'd been pushed into the goalie which would have made Gravellese's call a bad one, but perhaps the calls were justified based on the team's actions this season. DaveH