newman@bgsuvax.UUCP (Tim Newman) (01/23/85)
Well, here we go again. Some person decides that he must flame the CCHA. Ok, buster, now you get your just desserts. CCHA a weak league. Hardy har har. Bowling Green is the National Champion! Plain and simple. Number One. Bowling Green finished first after playing even up with the best the West had to offer (Duluth) for 95 minutes. Both teams had ample opportunities to win, but the fact of the matter is that Bowling Green came out on top as current Calgary Flame Gino Cavallini put the puck in the net minded by Rick Kosti of Minnesota-Duluth. Bowling Green won. So what if the national championship was close and almost came out so that nobody won? Bowling Green DID win and hence they ARE the national champs. No one has the right to denigrate our title by making excuses for someone else's play. The fact is that there are winners and losers and BG was a winner. How did they do this? They had lost 6-3 at Boston University on Friday night to fall down by 3 goals in the total goal series. They bounced right back in convincing fashion to win Saturday's game 4-1 to send the series into overtime. Mike Pikul of the Falcons decided that match by sending a puck home to defeat Cleon Daskalakis and his Terriers. The Falcons of the CCHA had shown an awful lot of character in winning their way into the NCAA Final Four. Furthermore, the Falcons defeated top-ranked Clarkson 3 times last season. It would seem to me as if that would seem to qualify the Falcons as definitely a top team. A team which beats its out of conference opponents is usually considered to be a legitimate contender for a national crown. The third time the Falcons beat Clarkson, it was a 3-0 shutout at the Lake Placid tournament - almost home turf for those Knights. Bowling Green was also decimated by player losses. Top center John Samanski was playing with the Canadian Olympic team in a Christmas tourney. Top scorer Jamie Wansbrough and 3 others were suspended for breaking training rules (they had some beers) at the tourney. As a result, Bowling Green had to skate short several players. Yet they still shut out one of the best Eastern teams. That doesn't sound like an inferior team to me. If a lowly (?) CCHA team can win without its top players, then so can a Western school which knew all year that it would be without those Olympians. And if you still think that BG's national championship doesn't count, explain why this "inferior" team has 3 underclassmen from last year's team playing in the NHL today. Gino Cavallini, Dave Ellet, and Garry Galley all are pros today. Finally, if the Wisconsin Badger fan would examine this season's facts, he might change his tune. Ohio State won the Lake Placid Key Bank Tournament this Christmas. Michigan State won the Great Lakes Invitational, beating Michigan Tech, the fourth place WCHA team, 7-0 in the Finals. It really would not appear that the CCHA is an inferior league. The very fact that Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech can compete in the WCHA seems to indicate that the CCHA produces fine teams. After all, these teams neither one were in the CCHA Championships last season. They watched the post-season tourna- ments at home. Lastly, Lake Superior beat Clarkson this season and lost in two overtimes to Colgate in another tournament at Christmastime. The next time that someone wishes to run down an entire league, he'd certainly better get his facts straight. After all, the CCHA is now the conference of champions. MSU is the top-ranked team today and I predict a national champion- ship for them, although Duluth is certainly also a fine team. That would make two in a row for the "bus league." And Michigan, the eighth place CCHA team right now, has won more national championships than any other team. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Tim Newman, proud to be a Falcon fan.!!
fishkin@ucbvax.ARPA (Ken Fishkin) (01/25/85)
In article <205@bgsuvax.UUCP> newman@bgsuvax.UUCP (Tim Newman) writes: >CCHA a weak league. Hardy har har. Bowling Green is the National Champion! Mr. Newman's argument is as follows: "The CCHA won the championship last year. Therefore, they are not a weak league". This argument is only valid if your memory can only hold 1 bit of information. 1 year does not a league make. OK, *1* year, *1* CCHA team does well in the NCAA's: Even a blind squirrel finds a few nuts. >After all, the CCHA is now the conference of champions. snort, guffaw! One-bit-itis strikes again! After this Super Bowl, would you call the NFC West the "conference of champions"? (2 championships in >= 25 years). >And Michigan, the eighth place CCHA team >right now, has won more national championships than any other team. all won when Michigan was in the WCHA! -- Ken Fishkin Berkeley Computer Graphics Lab ucbvax!fishkin fishkin@berkeley
newman@bgsuvax.UUCP (Tim Newman) (01/27/85)
>>Michigan has won more national championships than any other school
Sure, Michigan won those titles while they played first in the WIHA and then
in the WCHA. But the fact remains that they DID win them.
This just goes to show that my thesis of the conference being the
conference of champions is indeed correct. A conference is only the
the sum of its schools, and I really am flabbergasted that someone
could run down an entire conference when the schools DO have
a great tradition of excellence. Why you attack my example of Michigan is
beyond me because it seems that the addition of a school with a great hockey
tradition would strengthen a conference and definitely make it a bona fide
conference.
Instead of running down the CCHA, why not run down the Eastern teams?
Last year they sent no teams to the Final Four, and the CCHA has won more
titles in the last five years than have the Eastern teams. Yet I will not
run down those leagues, because they ARE decent conferences.
The remaining people out there in netland should not be fooled by
those who would downgrade the CCHA. The conference is a good field of teams
with as much tradition, fan support, and general excellence as any other
group of teams in the country.
Of course,
Tim Newman