ryan@fremen.DEC (Mike Ryan) (03/13/85)
First off, here are the playoff results: CCHA Semi-finals: Lake Superior 4, Bowling Green 1 Michigan State 8, Ohio State 0 Championship: Michigan State 5, Lake Superior 1 WCHA Semi-finals: Minnesota-Duluth 4, North Dakota 4 Minnesota-Duluth ?, North Dakota ? (didn't get the score, Duluth won) Minnesota 6, Wisconsin 0 Minnesota 8, Wisconsin 7 Two-game total-goal championship coming this weekend, Minnesota at Duluth. ECAC Quarter-finals: RPI over Princeton, 7-2 and 11-4 Cornell over Yale, 9-2 and 4-2 Clarkson over St. Lawrence, 6-2 and 4-4 Harvard over Colgate, 4-2 and 10-2 Tournament at Boston Garden this weekend with semi-final match-ups of Clarkson vs. Harvard and Cornell vs. RPI (rematch of regular-season finales). See ya there! Hockey East Quarter-finals: Lowell split with UNH 7-6, 4-8; won mini-game 1-0 (official score according to NCAA: Lowell wins, 5-8) BU over Maine, 7-4 and 4-2 Providence over Northeastern, 3-2 and 3-0 Tournament at Providence Civic Center this weekend with semi-final match-ups of Lowell vs. BC and Providence vs. BU. Now, some comments. It seems pretty obvious that Michigan State, Lake Superior, Minnesota-Duluth, and Minnesota are going to make the NCAA's. It's probably safe to assume both RPI and BC will be selected regardless of playoff performance because of the way they dominated their leagues in the regular season. Of course, tournament champions are automatically selected, so the question is who will be selected if RPI and BC win their tournaments. In the ECAC, it will probably be the winner of the Harvard-Clarkson game (although Harvard, by virtue of their second-place finish and two regular-season wins over Clarkson, could lose to Clarkson and still make it if they can make a good showing against Cornell in the consolation while Clarkson does badly against RPI). BU's solid second-place finish gives them the advantage in Hockey East, although Providence could beat them out by beating them handily and playing tough against BC. I've said before that I expected UNH to be the surprise team of the playoffs. Well, they lost to the *real* surprise team, the University of Lowell. Two seasons ago they were in Division II, last season they played an independent schedule in Division I. Making the league semi-finals in their first year of Division I league play is a hell of an accomplishment. Speaking of surprises, as I warned last week Maine did give BU a tough time. In the second game they jumped out to a 2-0 lead and valiantly held on until the third period as BU thoroughly outplayed them all the way. Goaltender Jean LaCoste did a great job of surviving all the BU scoring oppurtunities handed over by his team, and would have won if Maine had showed any sign of offense after the mid-first period (BU could have pulled their goalie then and won the game 10-2). The last BU goal was open-net with a minute left; Maine was still in the game up till then. Now some predictions. I don't forsee any surprises in Hockey East; BC should beat BU in the final and they'll both proceed to the NCAA tournament. Of course, RPI will win the ECAC tournament. I expect Clarkson to beat Harvard in the semi-final - they've got the playoff/pressure experience, and Harvard hasn't done that well under pressure... except in the season finale against Clarkson. Expect Harvard to do very well next year, though - they're not losing much to graduation. Unfortunately for them, neither is RPI. Anyway, despite my optimistic prediction, the prospect of playing Clarkson in the final worries me (more than Mich. St. or Duluth, even). RPI's beaten them now three times in a row (including last year's ECAC semi-final), and it's very tough to win consistently against a major rival. There's bad blood between the teams; I understand there was a bench-clearer in their last regular-season game (RPI's first win at Clarkson in several years) - whoever wins, they'll probably both be hurting going into the NCAA tournament. RPI should win on their superior talent; but when it comes to a rivalry like this talent doesn't always make the difference. Further flames on Hockey East "officiating": I had the oppurtunity to see four of the Hockey East playoff games on TV (both Lowell-UNH games, and the closing games of the other series). The most amusing aspect of the officiating was listening to the announcers changing attitudes when faced with four consecutive nights of the bullS***. The first night, when a blatant penalty was ignored, they made a half-hearted defense of the official along the lines of Well, he ignored an earlier similar play, so this is "good, consistent officiating". Of course, taking this definition of "good officiating" to its logical conclusion, the best referee is one who never calls a penalty. By Sunday's BU-Maine game, the announcers were getting frustrated: "I'm not going to talk any more about the officiating. I'm sick of talking about it." (I believe that's an accurate quote). For Monday's closing Northeastern-Providence game, an occasional "I can't believe that" sufficed. All the games I saw had one thing in common: missed calls early in the game led to an escalation of violence, and by the third period (when refs tend to "let them play" anyway) it looked like the NFL out there. The ECAC isn't immune either; there was a brawl in the second Colgate-Harvard game which took at least twenty minutes to sort out; at the end the players would not shake hands. I didn't see that one, so I don't know to what extent the officials let it get out of hand. Anyway, that's not the kind of "hockey" I like, and I don't think it bodes well for the future of college hockey (although I guess it's good preparation for the NHL). GO BIG RED!!!!! Mike Ryan