pal (03/25/83)
The Wisconsin Badgers will play in their third consecutive NCAA final Saturday. They beat Providence College 2-0 today, and will meet the winner of Friday's Harvard-Minnesota game. REVIEW: Providence had been the best team in the east all season, but had slipped recently, beating Yale narrowly 2-1 & 2-1 and then St.Lawrence 1-0 in the ECAC semi-finals before losing to Harvard 4-1 in the finals. Probably the most surprising thing about Providence was their VERY physical play. I was completely unimpressed by their puck control and skating ability, but they hit as hard as anyone, North Dakota included. Providence never threatened in the first period, getting only three shots on goal, whereas Wisconsin had several good opportunities, including one incident where a Providence defender had to dive on the puck and freeze it in the crease after Proulx the goalie had been faked out and the puck was behind him. No delay penalty was called. The officiating was TERRIBLE throughout. The period ended scoreless. Wisconsin started the second period on a power-play, which Houck converted. Providence looked better this period, but the referees looked worse, and the game very nearly got out of hand, with several goal-mouth skirmishes which the referees let go. They did, however, call Bruce Driver for delay of game when he froze the puck off a rebound after Behrend made a save. A second Providence delay of a similar nature went uncalled. The game stayed close the rest of the way, until Providence pulled Proulx with 1:10 to go, even though they didn't have control of the puck. John Johannson came out of the zone, waited for the defenseman to go down, and lifted the puck over to Jimmy Johannson, who tapped it into the empty net. Providence took a frustration penalty a few seconds later, and that was their last touch of the puck.