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Okay, here, as promised, is my non-informative account [:-)] of yesterday's Great Western Freeze-Out semis, as sort of a supplement to the boxes I posted to INFO-HOCKEY-L last night: I walked into the rink while Maine and Miami (Ohio) were warming up for the first game. Never having seen the Redskins' uniforms, I was thrown for a moment, mistaking them for BU. But then my conscious mind kicked in as I remembered it was BC that was in the tournament and realized that the word in white across the red jerseys was "MIAMI" and not "BOSTON". Of course, that confusion was nothing compared to the best line of the Freeze-Out, asked by a little boy of his mother: "What color is Florida wearing?" For some reason, AAA had decided that the best available seat was halfway up on the Redskin goal line. This actually proved useful, as I got a good view of the Black Bears' second goal, which slid behind Prior (as Deron Treadwell pointed out on INFO, I misidentified the Miami goalie as Deschambeault in my summary last night, as the name had escaped me and I guessed wrong; a thousand pardons) as he grabbed it with his glove. From my seat, it looked like it didn't make it across the line, but it was a fast play, and the official was a lot closer. (Oh, speaking of officials, when CCHA ref Shegos's name was announced, someone in the crowd yelled "Shegos sucks!" I was amused.) This was actually my second time meeting Hockey-L people, since Bob Stagat and his family watched the ECACs with me and some friends in Santa Barbara, but it was my first primarily H-L gathering. John Paraels, who was to meet me at my seat, got caught in traffic and didn't make it until late in the first period, when the score was 3-2 Maine. Margie Rennett and her kids visited before the game and between periods, and John and I joined them in their seats behind the Maine goal in the third period, by which point Rick MacAdoo was also there. As I mentioned elsewhere, both of the underdogs played well, and Miami in particular seemed to have been one lucky bounce away from overtime. In addition to the close call in the first period, questionable delay of game late in the third, and a blatant trip by Maine that went uncalled at 19:50, there was one sequence in the second, where Miami got Allison down on the ice, but the puck was deflected into the stands. Considering how dire it looked when Maine scored at 0:13 of the first, the Redskins never gave up. After giving up back-to-back power play goals to go down 3-1 in the first, they converted a power play of their own at 16:01, and then killed off a penalty that came 23 seconds later. After Schermerhorn and Cardinal scored in the third to put Maine up 5-2 at 7:06 of the third, we though it was over, but again Miami fought back. Although the Hockey-L crowd (of 5) was predominantly Hockey East, more than one of us began pulling for an upset as the game went on. Between games we migrated up to Beers of the World for the scheduled gathering. Actually, we had to search for it, since the stand itself was closed, and the ushers didn't seem to know where it was. When we got there, no one was there, so either we had all already found each other or any lurkers in attendence were still lurking. We're counting on tomorrow's gathering at the Video Arch in the Pond to be better attended. Before the Michigan State-BC contest, Margie and her daughter Nancy made their way to the MSU bench to say hi to Michigan State coach (and Hockey-Ler) Dave McAuliffe, and I joined them. Dave was late coming out of the tunnel, and seemed too focussed to notice Margie and Nancy's attempts to get his attention until the last minute. [In fact, he may now be saying, "so *that's* who was yelling at me!" :-)] Margie's son Mike, who had been hanging out with the Maine players between games, came over to sit with us behind the benches for the first two periods. Before the second game, as before the first, I was annoyed that the Forum only played "The Star Spangled Banner" and not "O Canada". I mean, this is *hockey*, after all. Another notable omission was Steve Kariya's name from the Maine roster in the program. Nancy joked that perhaps he was so short they overlooked him. In the second game, I was struck with how well BC played early on, but also with the sizable and vocal Michigan State contingent. None of the other schools seemed to have more than a scattering of fans, but there was a block of MSU supporters across from us cheering, chanting "Let's go State", and at least once doing whatever it is Spartans do after a goal. After the first intermission, we all moved back behind the goal, and the last two periods really felt like a Hockey-L event, with the five of us sitting, watching and talking hockey. Nancy put on her Hockey-L sweatshirt, and Rick (whom I had taken to task between games for his anyone-who's-not-Red complaint last spring about Cornell, BU and Wisconsin) had been wearing his Hockey-L and Phinal Phour pins all along. John had bought one of the Freeze-Out sweatshirts (which sported "Bum Equipment" in much larger letters than anything else, BTW), more because he was cold than anything else. As the PA announcer was giving away Freeze-Out sweatshirts to people with signed programs, I suggested that we should have had Dave MacAuliffe sign a program and given that person a Hockey-L shirt. Margie said we'd better ask Carol first. Carol? Tomorrow the action moves to the Pond in Anaheim (once again, any Hockey-Lers in attendence who don't find the rest of us first should meet at the Video Arch between games), site of the 1999 NC$$ Phinal Phour. One other thing I did learn was that *Alaska-Anchorage* is the host school that year. That was nice to hear; sure, the Colorado schools are closer, but it's nice to give Alaska hockey another boost. I'll leave you with all two sentences of the LA Times' report on the action, another sign that they need to work on their College Hockey coverage a bit in the next three and half years: Scott Parmentier scored two goals as Maine opened defense of its Great Western Freezeout title with a 6-5 victory over Miami of Ohio at the Forum. Michigan State defeated Boston College, 5-2 in the second game and will play Miami [sic] in Sunday's title game at The Pond of Anaheim. John Whelan Cornell '91 <[log in to unmask]> HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.